In Case of Siege
by MadTom
Summary: You didn't REALLY expect May Belle to keep her mouth shut about the Willard Hughes love note, did you? This is, in my humble opinion, a more plausible unfolding of that part of the plot.
1. Chapter 1

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

Preface

Standard disclaimer, I do not own the characters and am not using them for profit. They belong to Katherine Paterson and David Paterson, Walt Disney Pictures, Walden Media etc.

First off, my apologies to Emily. This is _not_ the Prom Night/Jesse's Proposal story you requested and which I promised. I _am_ still working on that, but I have to go where my muses take me. This one's a shortie, maybe three or four chapters.

This story is derived, amusingly enough, from an entry I placed in the Caption Contest at the "A Place For Us" forum (where stills from the movie are posted and contestants make up funny captions for them). My entry didn't win that particular week, but after thinking about it, I realized that the scenario was not only funny, but also very realistic and arguably even more likely than the way the book/movie storyline unfolded.

Although I'm not going to go back and change Jess's mother's name from "Nancy" to "Mary" in my other stories (to match the change in the credits from the theatrical release to the DVD release), I am changing it to "Mary" for this story.

As the twist in the plotline takes place before the end of the actual movie/book, it branches off into an alternate universe which probably won't be compatible with the future events of my _Groundhogs at Terabithia_ and _Royal Court of Terabithia_. But rest assured, this is still an LDD story.

* * *

Chapter 1

It was Friday, and Jess Aarons had had a good week. Relatively speaking. Of course, Scott Hoager and Gary Fulcher, his nemeses in Mrs. Myers' class, continued to sideswipe him in the halls and take both verbal and physical cheap shots at him in the classroom whenever Old Monster Mouth's attention was elsewhere. But any day that Janice Avery didn't throw other kids' sandwiches at him, or fool the school bus driver into throwing Jess off the bus, or shoot ketchup at Leslie Burke, was a good day. He and Leslie had very quietly avenged Janice's theft of his little sister May Belle's Twinkies, without Janice having any inkling that the two of them had penned the fake letter from Willard Hughes. The one that had proclaimed Janice to be the coolest girl in school, asking to ride home on her (and Jess and Leslie's) school bus, and leaving her standing there with egg on her face. Jess and Leslie had finished that day by helping her parents paint their living room a gleaming gold that, as her mom Judy had proclaimed, would "catch fire when the sun sets." All in all, a good week.

Of course, it wasn't going to last.

As usual, Mrs. Myers had given the class a lavatory break before Miss Edmunds arrived for Music. As Jess waited for Leslie in the hall outside the Girls Room, he heard some ominously malicious-sounding giggles from within. A couple of other girls stepped out, each giving him a strange and again ominous looking smile without a word, and then Leslie stepped out. She was more pale than he had ever seen her before, so that she looked either like a ghost or like she had just seen one.

"Jess," she said shakily at barely above a whisper, "we are screwed!"

Those words coming from Leslie's lips sounded so alien that he let out an involuntary laugh. Then the seriousness of the words sunk in and his smile reversed.

"Willard Hughes and his gang are looking for you," Leslie continued, "and Janice is after both of us."

"About the note?" Jess squinted in disbelief. "Nobody knows about it except you and me and May Be--" His eyes opened wide. "Oh, no!" He felt the blood draining from his face.

"The whole school knows. May Belle told Alexandra that we wrote the note, and Alexandra went and blabbed it to everybody else. Jess, we've got to leave the building like, right now, before Willard or Janice finds us!"

Jess began breathing heavily. His eyes shifted back and forth between their classroom and the exit at the nearest end of the hallway. "We need our backpacks!" he said finally. "Wait here, I'll go back and get them!"

Before Leslie could reply, he dashed the few yards down the hall to their classroom. The eyes of the rest of the class were on him, with a ripple of whispers and giggling, as he pushed past those loitering around the doorway or dawdling on the way to their desks, until he reached first Leslie's desk and then his own, taking their backpacks without saying a word or making eye contact with anyone. Not even after he bumped into Miss Edmunds and her cartload of percussion instruments right outside the door.

"Jess! Where are you going?..." Miss Edmunds' voice trailed off as she watched him rush down the hallway to where Leslie was standing.

Leslie took her backpack and grabbed Jess by the hand as they made a dash for the exit, ignoring a couple of teachers and Mr. Bailey the custodian as they all asked what they were doing.

One of the 6th Grade sections had Phys Ed out on the playground, so Jess and Leslie managed to stay fairly inconspicuous as they skirted around the field and slipped into the woods on the other side.

"Okay," Jess breathed, "we're out. Now what?"

"We hide out in the Castle," Leslie replied.

"For how long?"

"Until this whole thing blows over."

Jess stared at her. "Are you kidding me? Leslie, that could be weeks!"

"A couple of weeks at the outside," she nodded. "Remember when I said I was stockpiling all that food and bottled water in the Castle 'in case of siege'? This is exactly the kind of siege I was talking about, not Squogres and Hairy Vultures and Giant Trolls."

"My dad would kill me!"

"Not literally. Willard and Janice just _might_!"

"You're right about that," Jess nodded. "We should just tell our parents."

"Janice knows where we live. What's to stop her from going after us at our houses? Let's just go to the Castle... for now. Jess, we both have perfect attendance for the year, so we're not going to get left back for missing a couple of days. And it's Friday. Maybe things'll blow over by Monday, if we're lucky."

"And how will we know?"

"We'll figure out how later. One step at a time," Leslie sighed.

"We can't live just on Oreos and apples and chips. Even for just a couple of days. Let alone a week or two"

She rolled her eyes. "So we'll stop at the Winn-Dixie on the way. Pick up a few cans of tuna and corned beef, maybe some summer sausage or hard salami. Meats that'll keep without refrigeration. I've got some cash."

"Good," Jess nodded, then led her up a trail through the woods. "This trail should take us into town, right in back of the Winn-Dixie and the Wal-Mart, without crossing any main roads. And speaking of Winn-Dixie, do you think we should stop by your house and pick up PT?"

Leslie thought for a second before shaking her head. "No."

"He could warn us if someone crosses into Terabithia after us."

"I know. I'd like to, but there's no way we could get into my house and get him out without my parents hearing us. Plus we'd have to get food for him too. We'll be okay without him. Nobody knows their way around Terabithia except us."

"I guess you're right."

"Hey, Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"What does the Winn-Dixie have to do with PT? How'd that make you think about him?"

"There was this movie... Oh, never mind."

* * *

Mary Aarons came to the door. Although she'd only seen them from a distance before, she recognized the redheaded woman and the lean man with long, light brown hair and glasses even before they introduced themselves.

"Mrs. Aarons? Hi. We've never actually introduced ourselves, but I'm Judy Burke from next door and this is my husband Bill. We're Leslie's parents."

"Yes. I'm Mary, Jess's mom." She shook both their hands. "Please come in and have a seat." There was an awkward pause before she continued, "I... I assume you're here because you got the same phone call from Mr. Turner that I just did."

"Yes," Bill nodded, feeling as apprehensive as Mary, as they followed her into the living room, where they seated themselves on the couch while Mary took the nearest armchair. "We're at a loss as to what's going on. Our Leslie has never done anything remotely like this before."

"Neither has Jess."

"We didn't think so," Judy replied. "Jess is such a nice boy."

"Thank you," Mary said meekly.

"Leslie... has never had as close a friend as Jess before," Bill said. "She was always a loner."

"So was Jess," Mary nodded. "What your daughter and my son have is something very special. But that doesn't excuse their cutting class and leaving school."

"Nor does that explain it," Judy shrugged. "We're at a loss as to what's going on. Leslie may be a loner, but she's never been irresponsible. And Jess doesn't strike us as being irresponsible either. So there's obviously something going on that none of us know about."

"Mr. Turner told me that Mrs. Myers has no idea why they'd do that," Mary said. "Neither does Miss Edmunds, the music teacher. She's the one whose class they actually ran out on."

"Yes, he told us the same thing," Bill nodded.

"He did mention that Mrs. Myers says a couple of the other kids in the class pick on both Jess and Leslie," Mary continued, "but Jess has never said anything to me or his dad about it."

"Neither has Leslie," Judy shook her head, then frowned guiltily toward Bill. "Maybe in our case we haven't made Leslie feel like she _could_ come to us about it."

Mary cast her eyes downward, realizing that that was certainly the case with Jess and herself and her husband Jack.

"But then again," Bill added, "Mr. Turner sounded like he and Mrs. Myers were pretty sure that these kids weren't the cause of this particular situation."

"But how can they be sure of that if they don't know what the real reason _is_?" Judy asked.

"Good question," Mary said, then added hopefully, "Maybe they got on the bus and they're on the way home."

Bill looked at his watch. "That should be another twenty minutes or so."

"If you'd like to wait here and we could speak to the two of them together," Mary said, "Our youngest, Joyce Ann, is taking a nap. I'll be right back after I check on her. Just make yourselves comfortable."

Bill waited until Mary disappeared up the stairwell before whispering to Judy, "She seems like a very nice person."

"Like Jess," Judy smiled back. "Let's see what her husband's like. Probably not as rough as Jess lets on."

"Well, he's never actually _said_ anything negative about his dad."

"He doesn't have to, Bill. You're the one who studied and worked in psychology. You should have picked up on the same vibes I have."

"Yeah. But the whole family's probably struggling. Five kids crammed into this little house."

They shut up quickly as they heard Mary coming back down the steps. "Can I offer you something to drink?" she asked.

"No, we're fine, thanks," the Burkes both replied.

"I really feel terrible, having to finally meet you under these circumstances," Mary continued. "I really should have come over and welcomed you to Lark Creek."

"It's all right, Mary," Judy smiled. "Jess tells us you've been busy with the baby. That's perfectly understandable. I remember Leslie being a handful at that age. As a matter of fact, we've been planning on inviting your whole family over sometime, give you a break from having to cook for such a large crowd."

"Thank you. We'll take you up on that sometime," Mary nodded, then smiled wryly. "If we don't end up strangling Jess and Leslie in the interim!"

They all snickered. "I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for what's going on," Bill said. "Leslie just doesn't cut class and leave the school for no good reason, and I don't think Jess does either."

"No, he doesn't," Mary nodded in confirmation. "They should be home soon, and I'm sure they'll tell us what that good reason is. Hopefully this will be over with before my husband Jack gets home from work."

They spent the next few minutes chatting pleasantly about the two families. The reason the Burkes were there was pushed into the backs of their minds until they heard the back door open and close.

"Momma, I'm home!" May Belle walked through the kitchen and dining area, then stopped dead when she saw who was sitting on the couch. "Oh! Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Burke!" Her smile was forced, and she was unable to mask the apprehension in her eyes.

"Hi, May Belle!" Bill smiled back.

"May Belle," her mother asked, "did Jess and Leslie come home on the bus with you?"

"No, Momma." She frowned. "Are they in trouble?"

The three adults exchanged frowning glances. "That's what we're trying to find out, Sweetheart," Mary said. "Do you know where they are?"

May Belle paused before answering, her lips trembling almost imperceptibly. "No, not really."

"I hope they're just playing out in the woods as usual," Judy sighed.

"That's probably it," Bill nodded. "They'll probably both come waltzing in just in time for dinner as usual."

"I don't suppose you'd want to go out and look for them," Judy said to him.

"I wouldn't even know where to start looking," he replied. "There must be eight to ten square miles of unincorporated forest land out there. Unless..." he looked at May Belle with a smile, "May Belle, you wouldn't happen to know where Jess and Leslie go out to play, would you?"

"No, not really," she said again quickly.

"Assuming they'll be coming home for dinner," Mary said to the Burkes, "if you want to wait here for them, you're more than welcome to have dinner with us."

"Oh, no," Judy replied quickly. "We've imposed on you enough, and I have some meat that I have to cook tonight. We'll take you up on waiting here if you don't mind, but don't worry about us for dinner."

"Make yourselves comfortable," Mary said. "May Belle, you can help me with dinner."

* * *

"Okay, we're here," Jess said as they set their backpacks down on the porch of their "Castle" treehouse. "Now what?"

They had hiked perhaps three or four miles, all the way from the Winn-Dixie in town, along some unpaved back roads and mostly through the woods, following the creek until they reached their enchanted rope. So they were more tired than usual by the time they arrived.

"Well, we just sit and make ourselves comfortable," Leslie said as she took the plastic bags of groceries out of the backpacks. "This could be a long siege."

Jess had not seen the contents of the bags until now, as Leslie began putting them up on the shelves: not just the cans of tuna and corned beef and packages of summer sausage that they'd talked about, but a four-roll pack of toilet paper, a change of underwear and socks for each of them, a bar of bath soap, and a small bottle of laundry detergent. "You're really serious about this."

"Jess, you were the one who said that if either Willard or Janice found out, they'd both kill us."

"But Old Monster Mouth or Mr. Turner have probably called both our parents by now. My dad's liable to send the police out looking for us. We should run home real quick and leave a note, let 'em know we're okay."

"Okay," Leslie nodded. "You're right."

"And if I can do them without us getting caught, I want to do most of my chores."

"Your chores?" Leslie giggled.

"Look, we're already looking at probably a week's worth of detention for ditching school. I don't need my dad being any madder at me than he already is on top of everything else!"

* * *

"Bill, Judy, these are Jess's sisters Ellie and Brenda," Mary said as the two teenage girls walked in. "Girls, this is Mr. and Mrs. Burke from next door, Leslie's mom and dad."

"Whoa!" Brenda raised her eyebrows. "The girlfriend's parents show up! What's Jess done now?"

"Nothing that concerns you, young lady!" Mary sighed.

"Well, if I'm gonna be an aunt soon, doesn't it concern me?" Brenda laughed wickedly.

"Brenda!" Mary shouted. She was bright red with both embarrassment and rage as she turned back to the Burkes. "You'll have to forgive her. She hasn't learned to channel her wild imagination appropriately the way her brother has."

The two teens went up the stairs to their room as Bill and Judy looked at each other, dumbfounded. "Look at the bright side," Bill whispered with a laugh. "We may have just gotten the inspiration for the next book!"

"I'm taking copious mental notes," Judy nodded.

Ellie took an armchair while Brenda plopped down on the floor in front of the couch when they returned from their room, and turned on the TV. It wasn't long before they started their usual bickering over what to watch.

"Score a couple of more points for my brain cell theory," Bill whispered.

After a couple of minutes-- and losing the TV channel fight with Ellie-- Brenda felt the eyes of the Burkes boring into the back of her skull, and turned to face them. "You know I was just kidding earlier, right?"

"Yes, Brenda. Leslie gave us plenty of warning over what to expect," Bill smiled smugly, leaving Brenda with her own turn at being struck dumbfounded.

Over the next several minutes, Mary went back upstairs and brought Joyce Ann down, seating her in the high chair with a bottle and then continuing to prepare meatloaf, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables with May Belle's help. Just as Mary placed the meatloaf in the oven, the Burkes heard the back door open and shut again.

"Hi, Honey!" Mary called in the direction of the door. Bill and Judy stood, hoping that Jess Aarons would be walking in with their daughter in tow. Instead they saw a tall man with short dark hair, in a blue work uniform with a Sure Value hardware company logo above the left shirt pocket, who kissed Mary briefly, picked up May Belle and hugged her, and then did a double take and put down his daughter when he saw the other couple coming over from the living room.

"Jack, this is Bill and Judy Burke from next door," Mary announced. "Leslie's parents. Bill, Judy, my husband Jack."

"Hi," Jack shook their hands noncommittally as they entered the kitchen. "Nice to finally meet you."

"Same here," Bill nodded, trying to be equally noncommittal, although his eyes betrayed his discomfort.

"Is there a problem?" Jack squinted, more toward his wife than toward the Burkes.

"Yes," Mary said softly, then put her hand on May Belle's shoulder. "May Belle, honey, why don't you go to the greenhouse and feed your purple flowers. And if you remember what Jess's chores in the greenhouse are, maybe you can do some of them."

May Belle pouted but said nothing.

"Now why can't Jess do his own chores?" Jack grumbled.

"That's part of the problem," Mary sighed, then gave May Belle a gentle push out the door. Back in the living room, the two oldest girls had their heads slightly turned toward them, but were thankfully so addicted to the music videos that she was fairly sure the TV volume would drown out most of the adults' conversation. "Mr. Turner, the elementary school principal, called both me and the Burkes earlier this afternoon. Apparently, both Jess and Leslie just picked up their backpacks and walked out of school in between classes, and nobody's seen them since."

There was a long moment of silence as Jack Aarons's entire body tightened up and his face flushed. He took a couple of deep breaths, then turned to the Burkes. "Whatever you do about your daughter is your own business," he finally said, then turned to Mary, "but Jess had better have a damned good explanation for whatever's going on."

"As we've told Mary," Judy spoke, "there's got to be a good reason. Our Leslie isn't like this, and from what we know of Jess, he isn't either."

There was another long, stone-faced moment of silence from Jack, and then he sighed, "You're probably right. That boy may have his head up in the clouds, but not up in other places. This is way beyond acting irresponsible, even for him."

"Do you think we should call the police, Jack?" Mary asked.

"What do you two think?" Jack asked the Burkes.

"They're probably out playing in the woods as usual," Bill said. "I think we should give them 'til dinner time. If they'd just disappeared mysteriously, I'd be more worried, but the staff saw them leave the building together."

"Even if we called the police," Judy said, "I'm not even sure where to tell them to look."

* * *

As soon as May Belle stepped into the greenhouse, she knew there was something wrong. Several of the plants had been knocked over, falling out of their pots, they and their soil littering the floor. The raccoon had gotten in again, the one that Daddy had wanted to kill but Jess had let go in the woods. Jess was really in for it now!

Then as she stepped further in, she saw that it was much worse: most of her own purple flowers had been knocked over. This had to be the work of more than a single raccoon.

"Daddy!" she screamed, as much in rage as in anguish. As soon as she'd opened her mouth, the door slammed shut behind her, blocking her scream from reaching the house, and a chill ran throughout her body as she turned to face her worst nightmare.

"Listen up good, Twinkie!" Janice Avery growled. Her face was twisted into a rage of her own that May Belle had never seen to this extent before. "You tell your Farmer Boy brother and his beanpole girlfriend that they're as good as dead! Nobody humiliates me like that and gets away with it!" She continued to glare as she looked around. "And if you tell your parents or any other adults that I was here..." She stomped on a tomato that was lying on the floor, splattering red pulp around. "...that won't be the last thing I squish!"

She was out the door, slamming it again behind her, leaving May Belle frozen in fear and shock.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Yes, I'm aware that all the Winn-Dixie stores in Virginia were sold off to Food Lion when Winn-Dixie filed for Chapter 11 a few years ago, but I couldn't resist exercising a little dramatic license and throwing in another Fourth Wall reference to AnnaSophia Robb's filmography.**

**As is my usual habit, I favor movie canon over book canon when the two conflict, but I also use book canon to fill in gaps in the movie. Leslie's stockpiling of food and water at the Castle "in case of siege" is straight from the book.**

**Yes, I know that the animal that Jack had trapped and Jess let go was a New Zealand opossum, but it looked nothing like a Virginia opossum which is gray and white, and looked more like a raccoon than anything else native to North America, so that's what I'm calling it.**

**I'm posting each chapter as I finish it, so no promises as to when the next one will be up.**

**Comments are, as always, invited and encouraged.**


	2. Chapter 2

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

* * *

Chapter 2

They crouched low in the woods and bushes in back of the Aarons home and waited until Janice was well out of sight, past the Burke home, on the road heading toward her own home. Then Jess and Leslie entered the greenhouse to find May Belle sitting in a fetal position on the floor amid the litter of uprooted plants, overturned and broken pots and scattered gardening soil, crying and trembling. They knelt on either side of her and put their arms around her protectively.

"May Belle," Jess asked, "did Janice hurt you?"

"No," May Belle sobbed. "Not yet."

"What did she say to you?" Leslie asked.

"Sh-sh-she said... 'T-Tell you-your Farmer Boy brother and his b-beanpole g-g-girlfriend that they're good as dead!'"

"That does it!" Jess said to Leslie. "We've both got to tell our parents."

"_No!_" May Belle screamed. "Sh-she said she'd s-s-squish me like that tomato if I told any grownups!"

"All the more reason to tell them, May Belle," Leslie said gently. "She trespassed on your family's property and vandalized your garden. Your parents can call the cops."

"The cops never lock kids up for something like this," May Belle said bitterly. "And if they don't lock her up, she'll still squish us! Please, Jesse! Don't make me tell!" She started crying even more, clinging tightly to Leslie.

"_Now_ she wants to keep her mouth shut!" Jess mumbled to himself. "All right, May Belle!" he sighed, then looked around him. "You just wait here while Leslie and I clean this up. I think we can re-pot most of these plants and they'll be okay. Are Mom and Dad mad at me?"

"Momma's not mad," May Belle said, then turned to Leslie. "Your mom and dad are in our house too. They and Momma couldn't figure out why you two skipped school, so they're more puzzled than mad. I don't know about Daddy, though. Momma pushed me out the door and sent me out here as soon as he got home."

Jess picked up the nearest tomato plant off the floor and placed it back in its pot, scooping up handfuls of dirt and packing it gently around the roots. Leslie took another plant and started doing the same. "You just wait here while we fix this and I do the rest of my chores," he said to May Belle. "After we leave, you wait until we're out of sight. I've written a note to Mom and Dad. You give it to them. And if you want to change your mind about telling them about Janice, you go ahead and do so."

* * *

"Dear Mom and Dad," Mary read aloud from the note. "Leslie and I are okay. We haven't done anything wrong except leaving school, and we're willing to serve detention or even go to Summer School to make it up if we have to. But right now, both of us will be a lot safer hiding out in the woods than we would be in school for the next few days. We'll explain when it's over. Don't worry about us. We have good shelter where we are and plenty of food and drinkable water. Jess." She managed a short, muffled laugh. "P.S.-- Most of my chores will get done as long as you're not sitting outside or by the windows watching for us."

There was a long silence as the four parents digested the information.

"Sounds like whatever it is they're hiding from," Judy said, "they're still trying to do the right thing."

"It's gotta be some bully," Bill said. "What else do kids that age need to hide from? Whoever it is, though, Turner and Mrs. Myers are obviously clueless."

None of the four adults noticed May Belle looking down at the floor and shrinking back into a corner.

"Well, Jess has never come to us about any bullying," Jack said.

"Jack, honey," Mary looked at him, "how long has it been since the last time Jess came to us about _anything_?"

"Well," Judy said, "as we said earlier, Leslie's never come to us either."

"Well, she's always had her own way of coping with things," Bill said. "She's never hidden out in the woods overnight before, but she has her own way of dealing." He nodded toward the note. "At least we know they're safe. No need to call the cops now."

"Well, I'm not going out and looking for them _now_," Jack sighed. "It'll be dark soon and I wouldn't know where to start looking. Unless..." he turned to May Belle. "May Belle, sweetie, you wouldn't know where Jess and Leslie go out to play after school, would you?"

May Belle stiffened, shook her head jerkily and turned her eyes back toward the floor.

"Hey," Judy said tentatively, "maybe PT can show us."

"Who the heck is PT?" Jack squinted.

"Oh, that's the puppy Jess gave to Leslie," Mary told him.

"Now, how the heck could Jess afford to buy his girlfriend a dog on _his_ allowance?" Jack scowled.

"It didn't cost him anything," Mary explained. "He's a mutt, and Mr. Delahunt over at the Farmer's Market was looking for a home for him."

"And we're gonna let this little puppy lead us to where the kids are," Jack rolled his eyes skeptically.

"He's not _that_ little," Bill said. "He's almost full grown. And he's all we've got to work with."

Jack squinted out the nearest window, where the setting sun was hidden by dark gray clouds. "Well, if you want to start looking around now, suit yourself. It'll be dark soon and it's supposed to rain most of the night. They'll probably come running home as soon as the first drops fall. And I don't know about your little girl, but if Jess doesn't have the sense to come in out of the rain, he deserves to spend a night getting soaked, as far as I'm concerned."

"Well, neither of our kids are dummies," Bill replied. "If they say they've got good shelter, whatever that may be, then they probably do. And the low tonight's supposed to be in the low 60s, so they should be okay for one night. But I'm going out with PT as soon as it's light tomorrow, rain or shine."

"Well, come and get me when you do," Jack said, then added with a grumble, "Good thing my shifts as weekend manager don't start for three more weeks. But I'm still betting those two come running home as soon as the rain hits."

* * *

The rain hit before they reached the edge of the cattle pasture and entered the woods. Their jackets kept their upper bodies dry, but by the time they swung back across the creek and returned to the castle, their sneakers, socks and pant legs were dripping.

After hanging up their jackets, Jess turned on a flashlight, and they saw that the roof they'd rebuilt with scavenged plywood and scraps of shingles and other materials was holding up nicely.

"This is great!" Leslie grinned. "If it's holding up in this rain, it'll hold up through pretty much anything we can expect."

"You really _are_ great at building stuff," Jess beamed at her.

"So are you," she smiled back. "I didn't do this alone, you know."

"Thanks." He took one of the canvas sheets they'd used as temporary roofing and walls, and unfolded it in the center of the floor. They both sat on it and took off their shoes and socks. As Leslie had to unlace her high tops and wore knee socks, she took a little longer than Jess. Then after a few seconds' hesitation, she unbuckled her belt and started pulling down her slacks.

"Leslie," Jess said as he felt himself flushing, "are you actually taking your pants off?"

"Jess, I'm not going to sit around in wet pants all night!" she sighed. "I've still got my underwear on. You're not seeing any more of me than you would if we went to the beach or a swimming pool. And unless _you're_ not wearing any underwear, I won't be seeing any more of you than I would at the beach either, if you take your pants off."

"Yeah, you're right," he nodded. As he pulled off his jeans, Leslie pulled a towel out of one of their storage crates and dried her legs and feet, then handed it to Jess for him to do the same.

"Besides," she continued, "if we stay out here a few days, we're going to have to wash up in the creek. And with Janice and Willard both out there looking for us, I don't think it's safe for us to separate. So I'm starting to get used to the idea that I may have to take a bath in front of you."

Jess flushed again as he grinned nervously. "And vice-versa, I guess."

"My parents raised me to be pretty relaxed about being naked around the house. The whole latter-day hippie thing."

"Well," he laughed, "with my house the way it is, you're definitely not the first girl who's seen me in my underwear. Just the first girl I wasn't related to."

Leslie paused, then smiled. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty hungry."

"Yeah, it's past _my_ dinnertime."

She reached up and took one of the summer sausages and a table knife from the shelves, while he took a box of Wheat Thins crackers, two apples and a bottle of spring water. They sat side by side as they ate, sharing the bottle of water. By the time they finished dinner, it was completely dark outside except for occasional flashes of lightning, accompanied by thunder and with the rain not having let up at all.

Leslie opened her backpack and took out a paperback copy of _The Alienist_ by Caleb Carr, and started reading somewhere close to the beginning.

"I didn't think you were into science fiction!" Jess said.

"It's not science fiction!" she laughed. "An alienist is what they used to call a psychiatrist back around the turn of the 20th Century. Because they thought that the mentally ill were alienated from reality."

"So why are you reading a book about psychiatry?"

"It's actually a murder mystery and historical fiction. This particular alienist is supposed to have been a classmate of Teddy Roosevelt at Harvard, and while TR is Police Commissioner of New York City back in the 1890s, he consults with the alienist to profile this serial killer. My dad loved this book."

"Oh," Jess nodded, then added, "I guess your dad's a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt, with what he said about working hard at work worth doing."

"TR was Dad's boyhood hero, and he got Mom and then me admiring him. His first novel, which he wrote way before he met my mom and was never published, was about a Middle East international crisis. The fictional President of the United States in the novel was a Yale graduate and a decorated World War II veteran who wore glasses, was a runner, and idolized TR. So he turned out to be a lot like George Bush Forty-one. Dad titled it _Return of the Bullmoose_. As he puts it, it was one of his best works, but real-life beat him to it!" She resumed reading for a few seconds, then turned to him. "I guess you're pretty bored out here without a TV."

"Not really. Ellie and Brenda pretty much own the remote. Not that there's much I want to see anyway. You're not really missing much without a TV in your house."

"So what would you be doing at home right now?"

He grinned and pulled his sketchbook out of his backpack. "Same thing I'm about to do here." He shifted around to face her and started sketching. In the dim light of the single flashlight, with Leslie keeping it close to her book, he worked slowly, although he was quite experienced by now at drawing by flashlight. It soon became obvious to Leslie, the way Jess kept glancing at her, that she was the subject of the drawing.

"Hey, Jess, do me a favor?"

"Yes?"

"Please put my pants back on in the picture. You never know who might come across your sketchbook in school."

"Okay," he laughed.

* * *

Bill and Judy Burke had left a while back, the two youngest girls had been put to bed, and the two oldest girls were fixated on _The Princess Diaries_ on The Disney Channel. But in the dining room, Jack and Mary Aarons were fixated outside the window into the darkness that was occasionally broken up by lightning flashes, and with occasional gusts of wind causing a drumbeat of rain on the glass.

"I should go out there," Jack sighed.

"And wander around in the rain all night in unfamiliar woods?"

"I don't know, Mary. Maybe that boy literally doesn't have the sense to come in out of the rain, but if he and his little girlfriend get pneumonia or something out there..."

Mary stroked his shoulder. "Jack, maybe you're not giving Jess enough credit. Come upstairs to his room. I want to show you something."

He sighed again and followed her up the steps. When they entered the younger children's room, they heard May Belle's voice in the darkness from her bed: "Jess, are you home?"

"No, Sweetie," Jack said. "It's just us. Go back to sleep."

They went behind the improvised curtain that separated Jess's part of the room from the girls', and Mary turned on the lamp beside his bed. "Look at this drawing," she said, gesturing to the wall next to the dormer window on the other side of the bed.

Jack glanced at it the same way he had a few times before. "So? It's a castle. With all these silly animals and creatures around it. Just another one of his head-in-the-clouds figments that he wastes his time on."

"Look again, Jack. It's not really a castle. It's a treehouse."

He looked again more attentively. "All right, so it's a treehouse that _looks_ like a castle. So what?"

"If he says he and Leslie have good shelter out there, this is probably what he means. I think the two of them probably built this treehouse out in the woods."

"Mary, this drawing's got silly looking animals and cartoon creatures."

"My point exactly. If it was _all_ his imagination, why wouldn't he draw an actual castle instead of a treehouse that looks like one."

"Well, then, I hope you're right, for his sake and Leslie's." There was a particularly bright flash of lightning outside followed only two or three seconds later by its accompanying loud thunderclap. Jack sighed again. "This is one of those situations where if he isn't dead, I'm gonna strangle him!"

There was a sudden loud sobbing from May Belle's bed, and then she got up and rushed up to her parents, clinging to Jack's leg. "Daddy, no!" she cried. "Don't hurt Jess!"

He picked her up. "It's okay, Sweetheart! You know I'd never really hurt your brother. It's just a figure of speech." He kissed her on the cheek and then wiped her tears away with his thumb. "But Jess _is_ going to have to be punished for leaving school, and for running away into the woods. What he did was wrong."

"No!" May Belle continued to sob and weep. "Don't punish him! It's all _my_ fault!"

"Now, how is it _your_ fault?" Jack said, with a light, skeptical laugh coming through.

"Jess warned me not to tell anyone about the Twinkies you gave me last week. But I just told him he was jealous because he didn't get any, and I didn't listen to him. Then Janice Avery took 'em and ate 'em!"

"Who's Janice Avery?" Jack asked. "Is she in your class?"

"No. She's this big Eighth Grader who steals from other kids' lunches, and stands in front of the Girls Room and makes you pay a dollar to go pee!" She turned to her mother. "She's the girl who lied about Jess tripping her on the bus to get him thrown off, then squirted ketchup all over Leslie. The first day Jess brought Leslie in the house."

"May Belle," Mary said, "why didn't you tell us?"

"Everybody's scared of Janice. Except Leslie and Jess. I told Jess to go beat up Janice for me, but he said he'd get kicked out of school for fighting a girl."

"He did the right thing there," Jack nodded.

"So Leslie said they'd get back at her another way," May Belle continued, "and they wrote this letter to her saying it was from this cute Eighth Grade boy named Willard Hughes. Saying he liked her and wanted to ride home on our bus with her. So Janice went and told all her friends. And when it came time to get on the bus, she went up to Willard. And he said she was crazy and he laughed at her in front of all her friends. Made her look real stupid, and everybody on the bus laughed at her."

Jack and Mary both stifled a laugh. "You've got to give him and Leslie credit," Mary said.

"Rather have him doing that than beating up a girl," Jack nodded.

There was another close, loud thunderbolt.

"But then I told Alexandra, and Alexandra went and told everybody. So that's why Jess and Leslie are hiding out in the woods."

Jack let out a loud groan as he set May Belle back down on the floor, sat wearily on Jess's bed and rubbed his temples.

"_Please don't be mad at me, Daddy!_"

"May Belle," Jack looked at her, "you really do have to learn to keep your mouth shut!"

"This changes everything," Mary said.

May Belle stiffened as her father held her by both shoulders and looked into her eyes. "May Belle, honey," he said, "tell us the truth now. Do you know where in the woods Jess and Leslie are hiding?"

She breathed a little easier, since his question had nothing further to do with threats from Janice. "I followed them part of the way in once. I can show you."

"Good," Jack said. He kissed her on the forehead and slapped her on the butt. "Now you go on back to sleep. In the morning we'll go look for your brother and Leslie. You take us into the woods, and maybe Leslie's dog can show us the rest of the way."

He and Mary tucked May Belle back into bed, turned the lights back out and went back downstairs and into the kitchen. Mary picked up the phone and dialed a number that had been newly written on the dry erase board on the refrigerator.

"Judy? Hi, it's Mary Aarons... No, they haven't shown up here, but May Belle just came clean about a few things, and you and Bill were right. There _is_ a good explanation for what's going on..."

* * *

Leslie read a couple of chapters of _The Alienist_, with Jess continuing to draw, both of them ignoring the lightning and thunder other than some mild flinching at those very few that were close. After a while, Leslie turned the flashlight beam again up to the ceiling, which they both saw had continued to remain dry. She stood, stretched, and then reached into the trunk for the one blanket they kept there.

"Hey, Leslie?" Jess asked tentatively as he put aside his pencils and closed the sketchbook.

"Yeah, Jess?"

"How are we going to, you know,... sleep up here?"

"Well," she smiled, "we've already got this tarp spread out, so we just lie down on it. We can fold up the other tarps to use as pillows. And this blanket should be warm enough for tonight."

He felt a lump forming in his throat. "For both of us?"

"It's even warmer when it's both of us!"

"I know," he giggled nervously. "You're okay with me getting under that blanket with you?"

"More than okay, Jess," she laughed. "I'm looking forward to it. Unless you'd rather use one of the other tarps..."

"Just making sure."

"Jess, relax. All we're going to do is just _sleep_ together. And even if we were going to do more than that, think about it: we're in Terabithia, where you're the King and I'm the Queen." She giggled. "In most kingdoms, that means we're married."

"Well, since you put it _that_ way," he smiled. He took two of the other folded-up canvas sheets and folded them up more so they were more or less pillow-shaped, then placed them side by side on the spread-out canvas.

"Except in Narnia, where the kings and queens are all siblings. Ewww!" she wrinkled her nose.

"The movie version was just on The Disney Channel the other night. The kids' mom kinda reminded me of _your_ mom!"

"Yeah. We saw it in the theater when it first came out. Dad teased Mom about it for days afterward." They got back down on the canvas sheet, stretched out with their heads on the folded tarps, and spread out the blanket over themselves, and then Leslie turned off the flashlight. She rolled over to face him, draped her arm over him and pulled herself close, feeling for his feet with hers and stroking them. "Yeah, this is really nice."

Jess had tensed up a little, but then relaxed and rolled over to face her. "Yeah, it is." He let his forehead brush against hers, and then their lips met. They held their kiss for a few seconds, savoring the sweetness and warmth, and then both breathed heavily. "And no matter what your mom looks like, this is definitely not Narnia, and you're definitely not one of my sisters!" he added with a laugh.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

**After playing Bill Burke in the _Kingdom of Terabithia_ Role Play Game for over a year, I feel I've earned the right to make his backstory a little autobiographical. This includes an unpublished novel titled _Return of the Bullmoose_, and other things that will come up in later chapters.**

**Again using book canon to fill in gaps in movie canon, Leslie did loan Jess her copies of the Narnia books in the novel.**

**Yes, for those of you who have read _Groundhogs at Terabithia_ beforehand, I realize that much of the dialogue between Jess and Leslie in this chapter covers the same ground. But I hope you also notice the subtle differences that are due to the different circumstances.**

**Again, no promises as to how soon the next chapter will be up.**


	3. Chapter 3

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

* * *

Chapter 3

The front had passed through sometime in the very early morning, so that the lightening predawn sky was blue with a very intermittent scattering of small clouds. Jack answered the the knock at the front door to find Bill and Judy standing there, both in jeans, sweatshirts and sneakers with Bill carrying an old military issue rucksack on his back, the two of them accompanied by a small long-haired dog, mostly white with black patches around his eyes and on his rump.

"Good morning," Jack said. "Mary's got coffee on if you care for some."

"Thanks, we've just had some," Judy replied. "We're ready to go."

"Actually," Bill said, "if it's not too much of an intrusion, I'd like to see this drawing of a treehouse that Mary mentioned. It might give us some clues as to what to look out for."

"Suit yourself," Jack shrugged. "May Belle," he called over to the dining room. "Sweetie, why don't you take Mr. Burke up to Jess's room and show him that picture of the treehouse?"

"Yes, Daddy," May Belle yawned, obviously not quite fully awake. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Burke."

"PT, stay!" Judy said as she and Bill entered. As May Belle led Bill toward the stairs, Mary followed her in from the dining room and exchanged greetings with the Burkes.

"Were you able to get any sleep?" Mary asked Judy.

"Actually, I think we slept better because of your phone call," Judy nodded. "Finally finding out what's really going on and knowing that the kids really didn't do anything wrong except cutting class."

"We're still worried," Mary said.

"Well, 'better' is a relative term," Judy smiled. "I can't imagine _any_ parent who wouldn't worry on a night like last night."

Bill and May Belle returned from upstairs. "Well, I've seen what kind of an artist Jess is," Bill said, "and if that drawing is anything close to accurate for something real, they should be okay. Everyone ready?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "May Belle tells us that the kids go into the woods past the end of the road between our properties, so we can take my pickup that far. Let's go."

He, May Belle and the Burkes went back out the door. "Good luck, everybody," Mary called after them.

The four of them walked over to the pickup with PT at their heels. He started sniffing tentatively at Jack until Bill picked him up and placed him in the pickup bed.

"So Jess gave that pup to Leslie," Jack nodded.

"Yes," Bill nodded. "This is PT, short for Prince Terrien. Not sure where she came up with that name. Except possibly from Prince Caspian from the Narnia books."

Jack nodded noncommittally. All he knew about Narnia was the little bits of the movie he caught while the kids were watching the other night.

Bill and Judy squeezed into the back seat of the pickup cab while May Belle got in the front passenger seat. "He's a good dog," Judy added. "We're glad Jess gave him to Leslie. She loves him."

"The dog or Jess?" Jack chuckled as he got behind the wheel and started the engine.

"We're pretty sure it's both," Bill said, "now that you've asked."

May Belle nodded to herself and smiled in silent concurrence,

* * *

"I still can't believe you got me out of bed before sunrise on a Saturday just to beat up on the Farm Boy and the Beanpole," Carla Dean yawned.

Janice Avery looked over at her dark-haired, blue-eyed sidekick. "I told you. It's _because_ he's a farmer boy that we know when and where to hit him. In case you haven't noticed, even though his Twinkie sister and the Beanpole are usually waiting by the road for the bus, he usually comes out from that greenhouse."

The two of them had taken a shortcut through the farmlands from their neighborhood, off the road and skirting the woods.

"Oh, gee, Janice! I didn't realize you were so obsessed with Jess Aarons!"

"Shut up, Carla!"

"Anyway, so what if he runs out of the greenhouse to catch the bus? It's Saturday."

"That's the thing about farmers, dummy! They've gotta do all this farming stuff every day, even on weekends. So _we_ don't have to be on the bus, but _he's_ gotta do all their farming stuff every day, even on weekends. So _we_ don't have to be on the bus, but _he's_ gotta be in that greenhouse. So we sneak up to it, and BAM!"

They had come upon the end of a dirt road along a fenced-in cattle pasture, and started up the road which Janice knew would lead to the back of the Aarons and Burke properties. After they'd passed the other end of the pasture and were walking along more woods on each side of the road, they heard a vehicle approaching from ahead.

"Duck!" Carla said as she dived off the road into the underbrush, yanking Janice with her by the elbow. They wriggled out of sight, and were well concealed as they saw the silver-trimmed black Ford pickup drive past and continue toward the end.

"That was Jess's dad's truck!" Janice gasped. "And I'm pretty sure that was the Beanpole's dog in the back. I saw it running around in her back yard yesterday."

"Now, why would Jess's dad be driving Leslie's dog around this early on a Saturday morning? Into the woods."

"No idea," Janice said as she got up and headed back toward the pasture but stayed within the woods, "but we oughta find out."

The pasture came back in sight as the pickup stopped at a gap in the fence. They saw two men, a red-haired woman and May Belle Aarons get out of the vehicle. As one of the men picked up May Belle and carried her on his shoulders, the other man put on a green backpack, then lifted the dog from the pickup bed and let it on the ground.

"That's definitely Leslie's parents," Carla said. "I've seen them downtown with her."

"Now, why would those four particular people and that dog be out here in the middle of nowhere this early on a Saturday morning?"

"No idea," Carla shrugged. Then she added, "Well, I did hear that Jess and Leslie ran out of school in the middle of the day yesterday. And they weren't on the bus when we went home! Hey, Janice! You don't suppose..."

Janice broke into a smile. "...that I got Jess and Leslie so spooked that they've been hiding in the woods all night!"

"Well, let's be real quiet and follow them and find out!"

Janice continued to grin. "This could be our lucky day!"

* * *

"This is as far as I followed them, Daddy," May Belle said as they and the Burkes reached the creek bank. "I never went across the water."

Jack lifted her off his shoulders and set her down on the ground. He looked at the _cafe au lait_ colored water streaming past them. "You mean Jess and Leslie wade across _that_ every time they come out here to play? How do they keep their clothes dry?"

"Well, we just had a thunderstorm last night," Bill said. "I'm sure it's not always that deep." As he spoke, Prince Terrien sat looking across the creek, barking happily.

"They don't wade across, Daddy. They swing across on that rope over there."

"PT seems to agree," Judy nodded as they all looked at the rope running from an overhanging branch to a bush on the far bank. "And I think he smells the kids nearby, too."

Bill found a long stick on the ground and used it to hook the rope and pull it back to their side.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Jack groaned.

"This shouldn't be too hard, Jack," Bill smiled. "Jess tells me you were a sergeant in the Marines. This is basic boot camp obstacle course stuff!"

"And what would _you_ know about Marine boot camp?" Jack scowled.

"_Marine_ boot camp, nothing firsthand," Bill replied. "But don't let this latter-day hippie reputation that Judy and I have picked up fool you. I went through Army ROTC at Princeton and did six years in an infantry battalion in the Pennsylvania Guard before Leslie was born. Two years each as a scout platoon leader, a rifle company XO, and the battalion S-2."

Jack raised his eyebrows a moment, then sighed again. "Well, _I'm_ too old to be playing grunt, and May Belle's _not_ going across on that thing, so I guess you two and the pup are on your own."

"Actually, Bill," Judy laughed, "never having _been_ a grunt, I'll stay here and keep Jack and May Belle company. PT sounds like the kids are real close, anyway."

Bill slipped off his rucksack and emptied most of the contents of the main compartment-- a camouflage-pattern Gore-Tex jacket, several bottles of spring water, sandwiches and a first aid kit-- onto the ground and placed the dog inside. "Well, PT, just you and me, buddy!" he laughed as he slung the rucksack back on. He stepped on the log at the top of the bank, grasped the rope with both hands and jumped off, anchoring his feet at the bottom knot.

His wife, Jack and May Belle watched him fly over the creek and disappear into the underbrush on the opposite bank, then heard his voice: "Hooah!"

"Just like Jess and Leslie do it!" May Belle laughed.

He reappeared at the top of the bank with PT at his feet, the dog continuing to bark happily as he trotted ahead into the woods. "PT, take the point!" Bill called.

Jack turned to Judy with a new look of respect. "Infantry officer, huh?"

* * *

She heard first her dog barking, then her father's voice calling her name. In her early morning state of half-sleep, she thought they sounded strangely distant, much farther away than downstairs in the kitchen or living room. She figured it was part of whatever dream she'd been having, and went back to sleep, squeezing tight on the pillow under her arm.

Then as her father's voice and PT's barking got louder, Leslie realized that what she was squeezing was much larger, warmer and firmer than her pillow and that she was lying on a surface much harder than her mattress. She opened her eyes to find Jess's closed eyelids and nose only an inch away.

"Oh my gosh!" she gasped and shook him, causing his eyes to pop open. "Jess, my dad's out there calling for me!"

Jess, who was usually up before sunrise anyway, was fully awake in much less time, although the experience of his first kiss and cuddling up under a blanket with Leslie all night had been so blissfully dreamlike that he had to look at her and his surroundings to ensure that it had been real. Then as Leslie's words sank in, he stiffened. "Gaah!"

Leslie whipped off the blanket, uncovering their pantless legs as they heard Bill's voice, much closer now, calling her name.

"How'd he find us?" Jess asked as they both pulled on their still damp pants. PT's barking answered the question. "Told you we should've taken him with us!"

She folded up the blanket and tossed it back in the trunk while he took the canvas and stacked it back on the shelf, eliminating all evidence of their sleeping arrangements just as they heard PT barking up from the ground directly beneath them.

"Leslie," her father called from the bottom of the rungs and ropes at the base of the Castle, "are you and Jess up there?"

She took a deep breath, then burst out the door onto the porch with a bright smile. "Yes, Dad!"

"Oh, thank God!" Bill sighed.

"Hi, Mr. Burke!" Jess smiled nervously as he stepped out behind Leslie.

"Are you two all right?" Bill asked as he started up the rungs. Jess and Leslie glanced at each other with the mutual agreement that Terabithia had been violated and compromised too much already, and that its inner sanctum must not be breached. Leslie rushed down the rungs, wordlessly forcing her father back down, while Jess sat on the edge of the porch, blocking the top of the rungs. "Yeah, Dad, we're both fine."

As soon as she reached the ground, PT rushed up to her, licking and nibbling on her toes. She rubbed his head with the ball of her foot and then playfully kicked him away. "You turncoat!"

Bill looked up at the Castle. "Wow! You two built this place?"

"Renovated it, really," Leslie explained. "The floor and most of the framework were already here. We rebuilt the roof and most of the walls. We were nice and dry all night."

"I'm impressed," Bill nodded. Then he stroked her shoulder. "Leslie, honey," he said loudly enough to ensure Jess could hear, "it's time to come home. Mom and Jess's dad and May Belle are all waiting on the other side of the creek by the rope. May Belle led us there."

"_You_ swung across the rope!" she giggled at the mental image.

"Yeah." Bill turned to Jess. "Your dad said he was too old to play grunt."

"Is he really mad, Mr. Burke?"

"Jess, May Belle told your folks everything. About that girl Janice stealing her Twinkies, and you two getting back at her with the phony love note. And May Belle telling her friend, and her friend blabbing it to the whole school. You two are gonna have to serve detention or whatever for ditching school, but Mom and I aren't going to punish you. And Jess, your folks are giving you amnesty too, because you did it for May Belle."

"It figures!" Jess muttered to himself.

"Did May Belle mention what happened last evening just before we came back to drop off the note?" Leslie asked her father.

"Not that I'm aware of," Bill shrugged.

"Then she didn't tell _everything_!" Jess said.

"And that means we're still safer out here than we'd be at home," Leslie added.

"Oh, come on, Honey!" Bill sighed. "How bad could it be?"

Leslie and Jess glanced at each other. "May Belle begged us not to say anything," she told Bill, "and we're not going to betray her trust."

"You might want to ask my dad to ask her about the greenhouse last evening," Jess said.

"But until she's ready to talk, or until _we_ feel it's safe," Leslie said, "we're staying here."

"Leslie," Bill sighed again, "don't make me carry you out of here!"

"Then give us a few days for this to blow over. Next week's a four day school week because of Good Friday, and then we'll be into Spring Break." She gave him a heart-melting pout. "Trust us, Daddy. Please."

Bill thought for a few seconds. "I'll give you the rest of the weekend, and I'm coming back tonight to check on you. And Jess, I can't speak for your folks. I wouldn't count on them keeping the amnesty offer on the table."

"Just ask my dad to ask May Belle about the greenhouse last evening, Mr. Burke."

"I will, Jess." Bill looked down at the dog walking in circles around Leslie's feet. "You want me to leave PT with you?"

Leslie hesitated, then shook her head. "No, Dad. We don't have enough to feed him, and the way he barks, he might lead whoever's out there right to us."

"Makes sense," Bill nodded. "All right, stick him back in my rucksack or he might not come with me."

Leslie picked up her dog and did so, kissing him on the nose and letting him lick her face. "Be a good boy, PT!"

"All right, I'll be back this evening," Bill said as he turned back to face his daughter. "Now, don't let each other out of your sights, even if you think it's safer out here."

"We won't, Dad."

He hugged her and kissed her on the forehead, then turned to Jess. "You take good care of my little girl out here, Jess!"

"I will, sir!"

Leslie climbed back up to the porch. After her father and PT disappeared in the direction of the creek, she smiled. "Well, we bought a couple of more days, anyway."

"_You_ did!" Jess smiled back.

"Hey, Jess?"

"Yes, Leslie?"

"I haven't had a chance to say it yet because of my dad showing up, but I really enjoyed just cuddling up with you all night last night."

"Me too!"

She grinned, leaned in and kissed him. "And I enjoyed _that_, too!"

"Of course!" he grinned back and held her hand. Leslie stood there, soaking in the fact that it was the same starry-eyed grin that she had heretofore only seen directed at Miss Edmunds.

Neither of them had any sense of how long they stood there smiling into each other's eyes. Finally, she stepped over to the basket of apples and oranges in their stockpile of foods. "Okay, what are we having for breakfast?"

* * *

"I found them!" Bill announced as soon as he came back in sight of Judy, Jack and May Belle. "They're both all right! That treehouse drawing that Jess did was pretty darned accurate."

Jack scanned the woods beyond Bill. "So where are they, then?"

Bill held his hand up a second before grasping the rope and taking a return swing. After taking off his rucksack and letting PT crawl out, he pulled Judy and Jack into a huddle, being very careful to make sure May Belle was out of earshot while at the same time trying to keep her from realizing that she was partly the subject of the discussion.

"Jess and Leslie still don't feel it's safe for them to come home," he whispered. "Apparently there's even more to the story than May Belle told you. Jack, they asked me to ask _you_ to ask May Belle about what happened in the greenhouse last evening. My guess is that this girl Janice went in there while May Belle was there, and threatened her." Judy gasped.

"But Jess and Leslie wouldn't come out and say it," Bill continued. "They pretty much said that May Belle's too scared to talk, and they don't want to violate her trust."

Jack glanced at May Belle from the corner of his eye as she sat sullenly on the log. "Are you sure Jess and Leslie are okay?"

"I wouldn't have left Leslie if they weren't," Bill nodded. "and they're pretty adamant about being safer out here."

Jack sighed. "All right, that does it," he said quietly. "I'm calling the police. _Nobody_ threatens my kids on _my_ property!" He turned to May Belle and picked her up. "Let's go home, Sweetie. You did good."

"I did?" May Belle smiled proudly.

"You sure did, Honey. You took us right to the rope, and PT took Mr. Burke the rest of the way."

* * *

Janice and Carla continued to crouch silently and low in the underbrush, waiting until the four people and one dog were well out of sight.

"Yup!" Janice grinned wickedly as she finally stood up. "It couldn't have happened any better if we'd planned it!"

"How are we gonna find 'em?" Carla asked.

"They're right across the creek! The Beanpole's Old Man wasn't across that long, and he said something about a treehouse! We know it's not that far, and we know what to look for."

"I suppose we swing across that rope to get across the creek too?"

"How else?" Janice laughed. "I'm gonna love telling them that their dads and the Twinkie led us right to 'em. Just before we beat the crap out of both of 'em!"

* * *

**Author's notes: **

**As I mentioned in my other story _Royal Court of Terabithia_, Janice's sidekick's name in the movie was Carla according to the credits, with no last name mentioned. In the book, it was Wilma Dean. I composited the two names.**

**There is nothing in either book or movie canon about either of the two fathers being veterans. I've made Jack Aarons a former Marine in my stories as a Fourth Wall reference to Robert Patrick's filmography, particularly his last couple of films before BtT and his backstory as John Doggett in _The X-Files_. As for Bill's military experience, as I said in my notes for the last chapter, after playing him in the _Kingdom of Terabithia _Role Play Game for over a year, I feel I've earned the right to make his backstory at least somewhat autobiographical. (I graduated from the _other_**** Colonial College in New Jersey and served in the Jersey Guard, but in book canon, the Burkes were originally from Pennsylvania.)**


	4. Chapter 4

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

* * *

Chapter 4

"Our sneakers and socks are still wet," Jess said after picking them up from the floor to check. "At least the sun's coming out."

"Well, I picked up a pack of six pairs of one-size-fits-all tube socks at the Winn-Dixie that we can both wear," Leslie said. "But my shirt's starting to smell ripe from all the running around we did yesterday, and my pants feel kind of icky because they're still damp."

"Mine too."

She smiled a little nervously. "We should just go down to the creek and take a bath, and wash everything while we're at it. Then we can just wear the new T-shirts and underwear I bought, and put our clothes out in the sun on the porch or up on the turret."

He smiled back even more nervously. "Leslie, you're really serious about us taking a bath together!"

"Hey, my dad just said for us not to let each other out of our sights out here. And he knows we have to wash up sometime! We already talked about this last night."

"Okay. I'm okay with it if you're okay."

"Yeah," she nodded. "But not where the rope is. It's a little too muddy there, and I'm sure it's worse with the thunderstorm. It's usually clearer where it's wider and deeper. You know where I mean, downstream after it bends."

"Uh huh," he nodded.

She reached for her still-damp socks and sneakers. "Well, I'm ready whenever you are."

* * *

Mary anxiously rushed out the front door as soon as she heard her husband's pickup return. "Did you find them?" she asked as soon as the doors opened and her husband, daughter and the Burkes started to pile out.

"They're okay," Jack reassured her quickly, then gave her a quick, faint smile. "You were right about the treehouse."

"But where are they, then?"

"We need to talk," he said softly.

"Jack, Mary, we'll be home if you need us," Judy said as she and Bill picked up PT and started for their house. "Thanks for the help."

"Yeah, you too," Jack nodded, then stepped back inside. "May Belle, honey, could you wait in the living room for a second?"

"Yes, Daddy."

He led Mary to the dining room and quickly explained to her what Bill had relayed from Jess and Leslie.

"You've got to call the cops!" Mary gasped.

"I know. But we have to talk to May Belle first. If it's what Bill thinks it is, she's probably scared to death. But _she_ needs to be the one to tell them. They wouldn't just take our guess at what we _think_ happened."

The two older girls were still sleeping in and Joyce Ann was crawling on the floor while watching the same cartoon May Belle was watching from one of the armchairs. Jack and Mary sat on the couch, leaving a space between them. "May Belle, honey," Mary said, "could you come over here?" She patted the space.

May Belle looked tensely at her parents as she sat in the space. Jack put his arm around her.

"Now, Sweetie," he said, "I want you to know that your brother and Leslie didn't give up any secrets, but Leslie's dad seems to think that there's something more you might want to tell us."

"About what, Daddy?" May Belle asked, stalling for time now.

"Mr. Burke seems to think it has something to do with something that happened last evening."

May Belle drew her feet up on the couch and pulled herself into a fetal position. She began to shake and sob, and both her parents drew up closer to her. "I can't, Daddy! I'm scared!"

"It's okay, Sweetheart," Jack said softly. "If that girl Janice or anyone else tried to hurt you, we can call the police. But only if you tell us. We weren't there."

* * *

They'd emptied out Jess's backpack of his school things, his sketchbook and his colored pencils, and loaded it with their one towel, a change of underwear, socks and T-shirts for both, their toiletries, and laundry detergent. The ground was still wet and squishy from the overnight storm, and after they took the first few steps toward the creek, their sneakers and socks were just as soaked as they had been when they came in from the rain the previous night.

"I'm not going to bother putting on the new socks after we bathe," Leslie said. "There's no point."

"Yeah, Jess agreed. "We're going to be pretty much stuck up in the Castle in our underwear until everything dries. Including the ground."

"In our underwear... or naked," Leslie grinned. "I haven't decided yet. I mean, the more you think about it, considering what we're about to do first, there's not much point to the underwear and T-shirts afterward either!"

"No, I guess not," Jess laughed.

"Depends on how warm it is, more than modesty."

They came upon the creek at a wider and deeper point. The water was clear, and there were large rocks, bare and dry, scattered along the bank among the tree roots. They picked a fairly flat rock only a couple of steps from the water. Jess put down the backpack and pulled out the towel and a bar of soap. He was standing on the edge and starting to take off his orange sweatshirt, with Leslie sitting on the rock and starting to untie her sneakers, when they heard a distant shriek that was abruptly cut off by a resounding splash like that of someone making a cannonball dive into a swimming pool.

Jess and Leslie froze, and then as they turned their heads toward the sounds somewhere upstream, a girl's voice screamed something that could have been "Janice!" and then there was another cannonball splash. Another second or so later, the same voice screamed "Hel--", and then there were no more sounds other than the flowing water of the creek.

"Did that voice just say 'Janice'?" Leslie asked as she retied her sneaker and Jess zipped his sweatshirt back up.

"That's what it sounded like!" he replied.

"She must've been waiting outside your house and followed my parents and your dad out here. And she's obviously not alone. She's probably got Carla Dean or one of her other friends with her."

"We should check it out!" Jess started along the bank upstream with Leslie close behind. "The voice sounded like it might have been screaming for help."

"Yeah, but it could be a trick of some kind. An ambush."

"I know. We'll be careful."

"And let's pull back away from the bank a little," she said. "If it's an ambush, they may be waiting to jump us and shove us into the water."

They moved over about twenty feet to their left, continuing upstream and keeping the creek in sight on their right. They came to the end of the widened area where the mud and silt from upstream was settling at the bottom. Beyond that, the water was faster and more opaque. Their pace slowed as their attention shifted back and forth between the creek and the potential hiding places in the bushes and rocks, and behind tree trunks around them.

They were perhaps fifty or sixty feet from the crossing point at the rope swing when Leslie grabbed Jess by the upper arm and turned him toward the water. "Jess, look!"

Jess recognized this as a spot where a large branch of an old fallen tree on the other side extended partly into the water. Most of it was submerged now, and snagged on the branch and snaking on the downstream surface was a rope: a very familiar rope with two knots at the end. But it was what was on the upstream side of the branch that got Jess's attention and made Leslie's grip tighten almost painfully on his arm: two human figures in brightly multicolored hoodies and athletic warmup pants, mostly submerged and face down in the brown water, pushed up against the branch by the flow. The hair of both figures swirled around in the flowing water: the one directly against the branch had shoulder length reddish blonde hair; the other figure pushed up against the first had black hair that, had it not been swirling, would have reached the middle of the person's back.

"Omigosh, Jess!" Leslie breathed as she stepped back toward the creek bank, pulling him with her. "We've got to pull them out of there!"

"Leslie, be careful!" he replied, but stepped after her. "It could be a trap. They could be faking it. Holding their breath. Then they could grab us and hold our heads under the water."

"I know, Jess," she nodded. She looked more closely at the two figures, then said, "Jess, I don't think they're faking. Look at Janice's head."

He looked and saw the same thing she did: red liquid issuing from underneath her head and dissipating into the stream.

"I don't think that's ketchup!" Leslie added. She sat at the edge of the water a few feet upstream from the branch and the two figures. "Don't jump in," she said as she lowered her feet into the water. "There's probably all kinds of rocks and junk at the bottom." She grasped the base of a bush next to her for support and slid slowly the rest of the way into the creek, fighting the shock of the cold water. She felt the sides of the creek bank and then kicked off directly across and let the stream wash her toward the two figures.

Jess did the same a second later, and was slammed into her just after she slammed into the limp dark-haired figure.

They both felt for the bottom with their feet and found that they were about neck deep, but had to fight against the tremendous water pressure to just stay in place. Together, they turned over the nearer figure: Carla remained limp and unmoving, her eyes open and staring blankly, her face pale with her lips nearly as blue as her eyes.

"I'll hold her head above water," Leslie said, pulling up on the hood of Carla's shirt with both hands to do so. "You turn Janice over!"

Jess worked his way between the two unconscious girls and then turned over the second figure. Janice was also limp, pale and blue-lipped, her eyes half open, blood flowing from a huge abrasion that ran from her hairline to her right eyebrow. He struggled under her weight and looked at Leslie straining to hold up Carla and move to the other bank. Then feeling with his right hand for the back of Janice's belt and grasping her jacket hood with his left, he let out a screaming grunt and boosted her up until her head and upper back rested on top of the branch.

"Leslie!" he said as he let go of Janice and put his arms around Carla's waist. "Get up on the bank! You pull, I'll push!"

Relieved of Carla's weight but still grasping her jacket hood with her left hand, Leslie kicked for the bank, then pulled herself up and crawled onto solid ground. Jess felt around the rocks on the creek bed for solid footing, then took a deep breath and ducked underwater. He wrapped his arms around Carla's thigh and tucked his shoulder under her back, then kicked upward with both legs. He repeated the process on the sides of the bank while Leslie first pulled on Carla's hood and then grabbed her by the armpits, until Carla was out of the water.

Jess made his way back to Janice, pulling her back off the branch and supporting her by the armpits as he kicked backward toward the bank and Leslie. When he reached her, they pulled and boosted Janice out of the water the same way they had with Carla, then Leslie grasped both of his hands and helped him up onto the bank.

They sat there catching their breaths for only a second, and then Leslie reached over, held her hand above Janice's nose and mouth, and then felt her pulse at her throat.

"Her heart's beating but she's not breathing!" Leslie said, continuing to breathe heavily. "Gotta do mouth-to-mouth. Check Carla!"

Leslie tilted Janice's head back and opened her mouth as Jess scrambled over both motionless bodies and then knelt over Carla. He felt her throat, felt the rapid pulse in her carotid artery. The water that was still pooled inside her mouth made it obvious she wasn't breathing. He turned her head to the side to drain the water, then tilted it back and mirrored Leslie's actions as she pinched Janice's nostrils and blew into her mouth.

Carla's chest rose a little with Jess's first puff, but with no other result as he lifted his mouth from hers. He tried to calm himself, drawing a deeper, steadier breath, then blew again much more forcefully. This time, he got more of a rise in her chest, and then water gushed from her mouth with a deep cough, spraying him in the face as he backed away and let go of her nose. Carla continued coughing up water, her body wracking increasingly with each cough.

Leslie had to blow into Janice's mouth four times without result. "Come on, you dumb troll! Breathe!" she said as she caught her own breath.

Carla stopped coughing, but continued to breathe heavily and raspily through her mouth. She blinked several times, her lips slowly returning toward their normal color although she remained pale. Her eyes came to focus on Jess Aarons leaning over her, and then she rolled her head from side to side to look around. Right next to her, Janice lay flat on the ground as Leslie Burke took a deep breath and blew heavily into Janice's mouth.

Janice's chest finally rose, and then she made a gurgling, gagging noise. That was enough of a signal for Leslie to back off as a geyser of water shot up from Janice's mouth and she, too, went into a coughing fit. Leslie rolled her on her side so that she faced Carla and Jess, then slapped her hard between the shoulder blades a few times. More water and froth spewed from her mouth with each cough. Finally, her breathing also settled down and she went limp again. Leslie rolled Janice onto her back again, then held her own hand over Janice's mouth to feel her breath before sitting back down, nearly exhausted.

Jess felt as exhausted as he thought Leslie looked, but remained on his knees. "Carla," he said. "Can you hear me?"

"Uhhhh," Carla moaned weakly.

"What happened?"

"Jan..." she murmured raspily, her eyes rolling back in their sockets, "tried to swing... Rope broke... I jumped in... Hurt my ankle... Couldn't swim..." She collapsed completely flat on the ground, closed her eyes and continued to breathe heavily. Then she fought against slipping back into unconsciousness, opening her eyes and rolling her head again. "Janice!... She all right?"

"She's breathing, but she's not waking up," Leslie said. "We'd better get help." Her own breathing was returning to normal.

"You go!" Jess said. "You're faster. I'll stay here with 'em!"

"Okay," she nodded. "I'll be back as quick as I can." She leaned forward over the two supine Eight Graders and gave him a quick kiss before standing up and stepping quickly along the creek bank. Her high-tops sloshed with water at each step. As she passed their crossing point and the frayed remainder of the rope swing, she broke into a run, heading out of the woods.

She went downhill and through the cattle pasture. Despite the stress and strain of jumping into the creek, pulling the two rather hefty Eighth Grade girls out of the water and giving Janice artificial respiration, she was negotiating the course home as fast as she ever had, without feeling very winded. But it felt like she was in slow motion as the pasture fence went past and she sidestepped through the gap and onto the dirt road. It still seemed like forever as the fence posts and trees lining the road unwound before her. Finally the old picket fence on the left marking the beginning of the Aarons property, and the hedges and evergreens on the right marking her own home, with her parents' Mercedes convertible parked on the roadside, came in sight. She was about to break for the gap in the hedge on the right when she noticed the flashing lights of a police car parked right in front of the Aarons' front porch.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Aarons," the young policewoman shook her head as she stood by the couch, "but if your daughter isn't going to do anything except shiver and cry whenever you ask her to tell me what happened, then I don't really have any basis right now for confronting the parents of the Avery girl."

Jack and Mary were both red with embarrassment and frustration over their seven year old daughter who was now a quivering mass of jelly on the couch between them. He stroked May Belle's back. "Sweetie, you heard the nice lady. She can't help us unless you talk to her. Come on, just tell her like you told us." All that elicited was more sobbing and shaking.

"Of course," the policewoman said, "if you want, I can call the county sheriff's Special Victims Unit or the state child protective services. They have experts at getting traumatized children to calm down and talk."

"Is there any other way?" Mary pleaded. "May Belle told _us_."

"But it has to go on the record from _her_." The policewoman looked at the notes on her clipboard. "Now, you did say that your son and his friend from next door know about this threat too."

"That's right," Jack nodded.

"But they're hiding from the Avery girl as well," she rolled her eyes. "Do you know where to find--"

The last of her sentence was cut short as Leslie burst through the front door. "Help!" she yelled.

Jack, Mary and May Belle all did a doubletake. The wet clothes clinging to her slender frame and her hair hanging in stringy strands over her face made her almost unrecognizable. Although much of the creek water that had soaked her had dripped off during her run, there was plenty left to leave a trail and pool in the carpeting at her feet, in addition to the mud from the dirt road that she'd tracked in. She looked at the policewoman. "Officer, we need an ambulance!" she gasped.

Mary blanched. "Leslie, is Jess all right? Where is he?"

"Jess is okay, Mrs. Aarons." She continued to gasp. "Janice and her friend Carla... tried to cross the creek after us... and they fell in... We had to fish 'em out... and give 'em mouth-to-mouth... I left Jess with 'em."

Jack shook his head and chuckled almost inaudibly to himself at the ludicrousness of the situation. "Officer Weatherby, this is Leslie Burke, the girl next door. Our son's friend. Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find."

"Come with me, please," Officer Weatherby said to Leslie, leading her back out the door to the patrol car. Leslie stood by as the policewoman reached into the open window for her radio microphone. "Lima Charlie Dispatch, this is Lima Charlie Seven," she called into it.

"Go ahead, Lima Charlie Seven," a voice responded.

"Need an ambulance at my location, Three Three Niner Culpepper Road. I have a report of near-drowning of two juveniles in the creek in back of the location, over."

"Copy Three Three Niner Culpepper Road," the voice replied.

"Roger that."

"Wait one, Lima Charlie Seven."

"Honey," Officer Weatherby turned to Leslie, "when the ambulance gets here, we're going to need you to show us where everyone is."

"Of course," she nodded.

"Lima Charlie Seven," the dispatcher's voice called, "your ambulance is rolling. ETA five minutes."

"Roger."

Leslie turned toward her own home. "As Mr. Aarons said, I live right over there. Can I just run home real quick and tell my parents what's going on?"

"Sure."

* * *

Janice remained unconscious as Jess kept his orange sweatshirt pressed to the abrasion on her forehead. He'd taken it off and used it as a compress, but now in the early morning air he was starting to feel the chill of the thinner, wet football jersey he'd been wearing underneath. On the other hand, since everything was soaked anyway, he decided that it wouldn't have made much difference. The sweatshirt was now liberally reddened with Janice's blood, and while the flow was lessened, the abrasion still continued to trickle whenever he checked it.

He turned toward Janice's sidekick right next to them. She seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. "Carla!" he said loudly. "Stay awake! Don't fall asleep on me. I don't know why, but I think it's dangerous for you to lose consciousness. I remember them saying it on _ER_ and _House_ a few times."

Carla opened her eyes and murmured "Don't let her die, Jess!"

"I'm doing what I can. Leslie should be back with help soon."

"Jess, I'm really sorry..."

"It doesn't make any difference. It's not up to me at this point." He looked at Carla again. "And just because the two of you obviously came out here to hurt us, doesn't mean I'm not gonna try to help her."

"I know... I really mean it... I'm really sorry." Carla began to weep.

"Jess!" Leslie's voice called out in the distance. "We're here!"

"Leslie!" he yelled back.

"Hang on! We're almost there!" A few seconds later, Leslie came into view walking along the bank, now wrapped in a blanket, her hair still wet and stringy. She was carrying another blanket that looked vaguely familiar to Jess; after a second he recognized it as the improvised curtain from his own bedroom. Walking in file behind her were two pairs of paramedics, each pair carrying an aluminum-framed nylon stretcher along with their other equipment; bringing up the rear was a young woman in the uniform of the Lark Creek Police Department.

Jess got up and rushed over to Leslie; they hugged each other tightly with relief, then stepped aside and made room for the paramedics to gather around the two older girls. Leslie grinned as she unfolded the blanket and draped it over his shoulders. "Your mom told me to give you this!"

* * *

They sat in the police cruiser, Leslie in the front passenger seat and Jess in the back, as Officer Weatherby followed the ambulance down the dirt road with the lights of both vehicles flashing. As the ambulance continued past their homes, turning onto the main road, Officer Weatherby pulled off the dirt road onto the Aarons' front yard, where the whole family, the Burkes and PT were all standing. She got out and opened the back door for Jess as Leslie let herself out, then took her clipboard and walked with them back toward the waiting crowd.

"Both girls are alive," she announced as Mary rushed up and embraced Jess, and both Bill and Judy embraced Leslie. "By the looks of things, they were lucky these two are strong for their ages and knew artificial respiration."

"Whoa, Jess!" Ellie Aarons looked at her younger brother in awe. "You guys saved Sylvia Avery's little sister's life? Way to go!"

"Yep!" Jack said, patting his only son's shoulder, and Jess saw that his father was beaming at him in a way that he hadn't seen him do in years, or very often throughout his life. "Your brother did good, and so did Leslie. Those girls were also lucky that these two are the two fastest kids in Fifth Grade." He reached over and stroked Leslie's shoulder as well.

"The girls aren't quite out of the woods yet," Officer Weatherby said, lifting her clipboard and taking out her pen. "The Avery girl hasn't regained consciousness. We're going to have to notify these girls' families as soon as possible. Anyone know their addresses or their parents' names?"

"I used to be friends with Janice Avery's older sister," Ellie nodded. "They live at, uh, Fifteen fifty-five Winchester Road."

"I'm pretty sure Carla Dean lives somewhere on Winchester Road too," Jess told the policewoman. "Or at least in that part of town."

"They're both on our school bus," Leslie added.

"That's a good enough start," Officer Weatherby said as she noted it on her clipboard. She turned to the adults. "I might have to come back later for more information from you and the kids for my report, but for now, I have to call this in, and I'll probably be involved with contacting the families. In the meantime, I'd say these two could use a hot shower and some dry clothes."

"Sounds good to me," Jess nodded.

Leslie reached over, squeezed his hand and leaned in to whisper in his ear, "I'm gonna have to give you a raincheck on us bathing in the creek together." She pecked him on the cheek, winked and then stepped off toward her house with her parents and her dog. "See ya!"

"Whoa!" Brenda said to Jess, "Am I imagining things, or did she just kiss you? I thought you said she wasn't your girlfriend!"

"_Wasn't_ is the correct tense!" Jess smirked as he headed for their front door, still dripping water.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

**Don't panic about the way this chapter ended. This is not the end of the story by any means. Much more to come; in fact, I originally planned on this and the next one being a single chapter.**

**My apologies to IHateSnakes if what happened to Carla sounds too similar to what happened to Jess when he rescued Leslie in _A Life Rescued_.**

**Comments are, as always, encouraged and invited!**


	5. Chapter 5

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

* * *

Chapter 5

Once he'd showered and changed into clean, dry clothes, it turned into an ordinary Saturday, with all his chores in the greenhouse and yard waiting for him. Except for the fact that his sneakers were drying in the sun on the back porch, and he had to wear his good leather for-church-only shoes. And the fact that his usual daydreaming about Leslie and Terabithia now had a new dimension: they'd slept the whole night cuddled up under the same blanket, they'd shared their first kiss, and they were about to take a bath together in the creek before they'd been so rudely interrupted. Jess was glad his father had his own chores to deal with in the house, or else he'd probably make some angry or at best sarcastic comment about the silly grin Jess couldn't help having on his face.

He was carrying a basket of tomatoes and green beans from the greenhouse to the back door when he saw his father standing on the back porch. He wiped the grin off his face as best as he could.

"Hey, Jess, Leslie's dad called a little while ago. Leslie can't come over, so they want you to go over there whenever you're done. They're inviting you to stay for dinner."

Jess stood there for several seconds it registered. "And I can go?"

"Why not?" Jack smiled thinly. "You just told the whole family she was your girlfriend, right?"

"I mean... I'm not grounded?"

Jack nodded toward the bench next to the door. "Have a seat, Jess."

He did so, and his father sat next to him.

"Jess," he continued, "what happened with this whole business with this girl Janice got me thinking. About when _I_ was your age. I asked myself how I would've handled it back then if some older girl bully had taken Aunt Gracie's lunch. I probably would've felt obliged to do something about it, and I'm not as creative as you are." He smiled. "I don't think that my solution would have been as clean and as nonviolent as what you and Leslie came up with."

"Thanks."

"I probably would've done something that would've gotten me in big trouble, suspended or maybe even expelled." Jack paused a moment. "Now, you and Leslie may still be on the hook for cutting class and have to serve detention, but Momma and Leslie's parents are going to see Mr. Turner on Monday about it, and if I can get out of work early, I'll be there too. I'd like to ask Mr. Turner what the hell kind of zoo he's running. Eighth Graders running extortion rings to use the bathroom? And what kind of idiot bus driver throws a kid off the bus on the word of another kid without reporting it to an administrator first? And then on that same trip lets the other kid get away with squirting ketchup over someone else?"

"Dad, Leslie didn't want to make a big deal out of it. That's why she washed up here instead of at her own house. She said if her mom got all over Mr. Turner, her life would be over. And we got back at Janice in our own way."

"Yeah, Mr. Burke says Leslie always had her own way of doing things. But it escalated and got out of hand. Someone could've died out in that creek today."

"But not because of anything _we_ did, Dad. If May Belle hadn't--"

"Momma and I have already talked to May Belle about watching what she says to Alexandra and her other friends. But I think what happened last night in the greenhouse already taught her that lesson." Jack sighed, and then added, "And you're right, Jess. It could've been tragic, but you and Leslie kept from making it so." He put his arm across his son's shoulders. "You did great! I'm proud of you!... Now what are you looking at me like that for?"

"Who are you and what have you done with my real dad?" Jess grinned.

Jack burst out laughing. "Don't bother calling the FBI! Mulder doesn't work there anymore!" He pulled his son closer, then made a fist with his free hand and rubbed the top of Jess's scalp with his knuckles. "You really want that other guy back, I can get him back here in an instant!"

And the father and son laughed together for the first time in years.

* * *

He entered the gold room to find Leslie sitting on one of the two couches, her bare feet propped up on the coffee table. PT lay on the couch beside her, his head initially resting on her lap but perking up when Jess entered. "Hey!" Leslie smiled, then patted the empty spot on the couch next to her. "Sorry for not getting up, but I worked up a couple of blisters running all the way home in wet sneakers. I'm trying to stay off my feet as much as possible." As he sat, she showed him the dime-sized blisters on the ball of each foot.

"Ooh!" he winced. "They must really hurt. Janice and Carla _really_ owe you big time!"

"Not really. I've been thinking, Jess. In a strange way, _we_ owe _them_. If they hadn't tried to come after us, one of us would have been on the rope when it broke."

Jess's jaw dropped. "You're kidding, right?"

"No. Think about it. It could be us in the hospital right now. Or dead!"

"Leslie, that's like saying that Hitler did the Jews a favor because the Holocaust led to the founding of Israel!"

"Well, I just feel like we ducked and they took a bullet that was meant for us."

"And then we jumped in the icy cold creek to rescue them, and you got those nasty blisters going for help."

She clung to his arm with both of hers and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm just glad to be alive."

He smiled into her eyes. "Yeah. Me too."

"Jess, you and your family go to church every Sunday, right?"

"Yeah."

"Can I come? Tomorrow?"

"You'd hate it. Especially tomorrow. It's Palm Sunday. All about the Crucifixion."

"I just feel like I belong in church tomorrow."

"Girls can't wear pants. Especially on Palm Sunday."

"I've got dresses, Jess!"

"You in a dress? That'd be a sight!"

"Tell you what. Before you go home tonight, I'll let you look in my closet and let you pick one out that _you_ think is okay!"

She clung to his arm again, then slowly turned toward him and kissed him.

"Any particular reason for that one?" he smiled.

"I'm having a little trouble getting past the fact that I finally got you to kiss me, and then less than eight hours later, you put your lips on Carla Dean's. How weird is that?"

"Not as weird as you putting your lips on Janice's!" he laughed.

"Yeah, I guess so! Anyway, I'm kind of giving you the chance to make up for it," Leslie giggled.

* * *

Leslie had to hobble carefully because of the blisters when Judy called them over to the dining room a little later. Over dinner, Bill mentioned that he'd called the Patient Information desk at Lourdes Hospital. "Carla's in good condition and Janice is in guarded condition," he said.

"I'm guessing that means Janice regained consciousness," Judy said. "I imagine if she were still unconscious, she'd be considered in serious or critical condition."

"I'm also guessing," Bill added, "even though the hospital wouldn't give out that kind of information, that both of those girls will be kept under observation for a few days. I seem to recall hearing or reading somewhere that in near-drownings like what they went through, there are occasional instances of what's called 'delayed drowning'. That's where water that's still in the lungs can come loose and block the airways, up to 72 hours later."

"Better safe than sorry," Judy nodded.

After a few seconds' silence, Leslie spoke up. "Dad, do we have any heavy-duty rope anywhere?"

The jaws of both her parents dropped as they turned white. "Not if it's for what I think it is, Sweetheart!" Bill finally said.

"We've gotta get back across the creek before Monday," Leslie explained. "We both left our schoolwork in the treehouse."

"No more rope, Honey!" Bill sighed. "Hasn't this morning taught you anything?"

"But you were just talking earlier about how you and Mr. Aarons were reminiscing about boot camp," Leslie argued.

"Leslie, on a military obstacle course, ropes and obstacles are inspected before and after each use, and there's always a medic standing by." Bill shook his head. "In fact, I'm kicking myself for not paying closer attention to the rope when I used it. I should've prevented those girls from getting hurt."

"You've never actually seen Janice or Carla, have you, Mr. Burke?" Jess spoke up with a slight grin. "Between the three of you, I think there was a lot more strain on the rope than Leslie and I normally put on it!" Leslie giggled with him.

"But it still would've broken eventually," Judy said. "I just thank God that it wasn't while one of you was on it, and that nobody died!"

"I guess you're right, Mom," Leslie said softly.

"We're not saying you can't continue to play across the creek," Bill said. "In fact, Mom and I decided to let you use some of the new lumber to build a bridge across the creek. I'll even help you build it. We can work on it while you're on Spring Break."

"That's _next_ weekend!" Leslie said. "What about our retrieving our schoolwork? I don't think the three of us could build a bridge to... across the creek by tomorrow evening!"

"I've already got a temporary solution worked out," Bill smiled. "And don't worry! It doesn't require either of you getting back in the water."

Jess and Leslie looked across the dining table at each other in alarm, both wondering if her father had overheard some of their previous conversations about bathing in the creek together. Then they both decided it was just coincidence and laughed silently to each other.

* * *

May Belle and Joyce Ann were already in bed when Jess returned from the Burkes'. He slipped in behind the curtain before turning on his bedside lamp and changing into his pajamas.

"Jess, are you mad at me?" May Belle called over from her bed.

He slid the curtain partway open. He realized that this was the first time they were together in the absence of their parents since the greenhouse incident. "No, May Belle. Not anymore," he smiled.

"You sure?"

"Leslie got me thinking. You may have saved our lives!"

May Belle sat up in bed and looked at him with eyes wide open. "I did?"

"If Janice and Carla hadn't come after us, Leslie or I would've been the ones on the rope when it broke." He glared wryly at her. "Just... watch what you say to Alexandra and your other friends, okay?"

"I know. I'm sorry!"

_Well, I'm not the one Janice threatened to her face to squish like a tomato!_ Jess thought, but fought the temptation to say it. He knew she wouldn't sleep well if she were reminded of that.

* * *

As usual when the weather was good, Jess and May Belle sat in the bed of the pickup for the ride to church, instead of cramming into the back seat of the cab with their three sisters with Joyce Ann in her infant seat. But this time, as they pulled off their property onto the dirt road, Jack stopped next to the Mercedes coupe in front of the Burke home and honked the horn.

Leslie was still hobbling slightly as she came out the front door while Jess lowered the tailgate, grinning as he took in the sight of her.

"Good morning, Leslie," his mother called out through her open window. "You look absolutely lovely this morning!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Aarons."

Her hair was neatly combed and held in place with barrettes, and she had on a white sweater over a powder blue knee length dress with a white turn-down collar. She was wearing sandals which, as she stepped up onto the pickup bed, Jess saw were basically leather flip-flops with the thongs made of silky ribbons that extended through loops and wrapped around her ankles. The bright rainbow pattern of the ribbons made them almost as flashy and funky as any of her various pairs of high top sneakers.

"Hi!" Jess smiled to Leslie and then, after he closed the tailgate, they exchanged a very brief kiss to May Belle's snickering.

"_Jess and Leslie sitting in a tree--_" May Belle started.

"That's right, May Belle!" Leslie laughed. "And in the back of a pickup, and on the front porch, and pretty much any place that's in good taste. Deal with it!"

May Belle pouted. "Aww! It's no fun anymore, then!"

Jess held Leslie's hand as she seated herself against the cab on his other side. "No. But this is!" He laughed, then paused before saying to Leslie, "Hey, I noticed you're still hobbling a little."

Leslie looked down at her feet. "I actually put on my black leather shoes first, but my blisters are still a little sensitive."

Jess laughed to himself. The "black leather shoes" in question, which she'd shown him when they picked out the dress were, while still technically fitting that description, in actuality another pair of high-tops, no less funky than the rainbow-ribboned sandals.

At the service, Leslie sat or stood with Jess, singing along with _The Old Rugged Cross_ and some of the other hymns, and was totally absorbed by the reading of the Passion. When breaks in the clouds caused beams of sunlight to filter through the stained glass window onto her, Jess thought it was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.

As everyone started to get back in the pickup, Jack announced, "I've gotta take a little detour and stop in at work. Leslie, your folks already know about this, so they're not going to worry about you being late."

"Okay," she nodded. As Jess closed the tailgate and they settled back in against the cab, she smiled at him. "I'm really glad I came. That whole Jesus thing. It's really interesting!"

"It's not interesting," May Belle interjected. "It's scary! It's nailing holes through your hand, because we're all vile sinners. God made Jesus die."

"May Belle," Jess said, "you do realize that Jesus came back, don't you? That's what next week's service is all about."

"You really think it's true?" Leslie asked them both.

"It's in the Bible, Leslie," Jess replied.

"You _have_ to believe it, and you hate it," Leslie said. "_I_ don't have to believe it, and I think it's beautiful!"

"You gotta believe in the Bible, Leslie!" May Belle said.

"Why?"

"Because if you don't, God'll damn you to Hell when you die!" May Belle pronounced. "That's right, isn't it, Jess?"

"I guess," he shrugged. "But Leslie, you were the one who loaned me your Narnia books. How could you be such a big fan of Narnia, and read all about Aslan and the Stone Table and _his_ return, and _not_ believe in the Crucifixion and the Resurrection?"

"I never said I _didn't_ believe, Jess!" she smiled at him. "I said I didn't _have_ to believe. My parents and I aren't atheists. They're agnostic and they don't think much about organized religion. There's a difference. And I've always kind of believed in God. And after staring death in the face in the creek yesterday, I believe more than ever. That's why I came today. I had to say 'Thank You!'"

"Well," Jess smiled, "when the light came through the stained-glass window and shined on you, I'm pretty sure that was Him saying 'You're welcome!'"

"Yeah, I think it was too!"

By now they were on the road out of town, heading toward Nixonville and the hardware store where Jack Aarons was the assistant manager. "Hey," Leslie spoke up again after a few moments, "I just thought of something! Your dad just said my parents knew about his detour. My folks haven't talked to your folks since _before_ I decided to go to church with you guys."

"Yeah, that _is_ weird!" Jess nodded in concurrence. "Plus Dad doesn't start his weekend shift for two more weekends."

"You don't suppose this trip has anything to do with my parents?"

"Nah! Dad's just being a workaholic. He probably just mentioned your folks so you wouldn't feel uncomfortable."

Nixonville was about a twenty minute drive, and at the end, Jack pulled the pickup into the employee parking lot outside the stockroom at the back of the Sure Value. As he stepped out from behind the wheel, he looked over and said, "Come on, Jess. I need a hand."

"Sure," Jess nodded. He stepped up on the wheel well in the truck bed and then jumped over the side onto the ground. He followed his father through the open overhead door into the stockroom, where Jack exchanged greetings with the two workers they encountered. They went along the side wall into the office, where Jack stepped around and up to a desk with a computer on it. Jess stood quietly and disinterestedly, unable to see the screen anyway, as his father made a few entries into the computer and then pulled a slip of paper from his inside jacket pocket and entered a string of numbers from the slip.

"Okay," Jack said, then led him back into the stockroom. They went between the shelves of boxed merchandise to the far wall and came upon several different types and heights of ladders stacked and leaning against the wall. Jack stopped at the stack of the tallest aluminum extension ladders and grabbed the first one: they were retracted to a height of sixteen feet but when extended could nearly double to over thirty. _Oh, boy!_ Jess thought. _More chores! We're probably going to have to reshingle the roof or something else up there!_

"Okay, grab the other end," Jack told him as he stepped over to a rack on the wall that held several triangular plastic day-glo orange marker panels, and picked one up.

They went back out to the pickup, and Jess rejoined Leslie and May Belle on the bed and closed the tailgate. Jack lifted one end of the ladder over the tailgate and let Jess guide it up against the back of the cab; even retracted, the majority of the ladder hung behind the tailgate. "You kids keep your weight on that end to keep it from falling out," Jack said as he tied the orange panel to the other end.

"Dad," Jess said, realizing the question was inevitable, "what do we need this ladder for?"

The normally stone-faced Jack Aarons smiled. "Leslie, I guess your folks didn't tell you. This is your temporary bridge across the creek!"

Leslie raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding!"

"When do I ever kid about anything? I agree with your dad: no way in hell are you kids putting up another rope swing! It's gonna take a while to build a new bridge and you still need to get across the creek to do it. Your folks paid for it, I got it at cost."

"Thanks!" Jess and Leslie said together, then looked at each other in amazement.

* * *

When he heard the pickup pull off the highway onto the dirt road and then stop near his Mercedes, Bill Burke stepped out his front door and walked toward it as the occupants piled out. Because of its length, Jess had to slowly let his weight off his end of the ladder and let the other end lower onto the ground.

"Oh, this is perfect!" Bill smiled as he looked at it. "Thanks, Jack."

"No problem," he replied. He turned to Jess and Leslie. "Why don't you kids change out of your church clothes, then after lunch, I'll run you out to the creek."

"I can go by myself if your blisters are still bothering you," Jess said to Leslie.

"Thanks," she smiled back. "I appreciate that."

* * *

After changing clothes and eating lunch, Jess and his father rejoined Bill Burke at the pickup truck. Bill rode in the cab while Jess rode in the back, again holding down the end of the ladder. When they stopped at the gap in the pasture fence, Jess dismounted and picked up the long but light ladder, balancing it as he started toward the fence opening.

"Okay, I got it!" he grinned. "I'll take it from here! Thanks."

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Bill laughed. "You think I came along just for the ride?"

"I can handle it, Mr. Burke!"

"Well, if he thinks he can carry it all by himself, let's let him!" Jack smiled. "But we're coming along to make sure it's done right!"

"We didn't get that ladder just so you and Leslie still end up in the hospital like those girls," Bill said. "We're not going to intrude into your little kingdom anymore, but we just want to make sure the two of you live to enjoy it."

Jess knew he wasn't going to win that argument, but he continued to balance and haul the ladder along the fence and up the hill into the woods by himself, his father and Leslie's easily keeping up while following along at a leisurely pace. As the creek came into view, they saw that the water was much calmer and a little lower and less opaque than it had been the morning before.

When they reached the old crossover point, the three of them extended the ladder to nearly its full length and anchored the bottom against the log that Jess and Leslie had used as the jumping-off point for the rope swing. They slowly lowered the ladder until the other end rested on top of the opposite bank, then placed another log on top of the near end to weight it in place. The three of them leaned their weight on it to recheck the stability, and then Jack spoke up.

"Okay, Jess. This thing doesn't have any railings and the flat part of the rungs is perpendicular to the ground. _Do not_ try to walk across upright and balance yourself on two feet. You've got to go across on all fours, as if you're climbing it, only horizontally. Okay?"

"Okay," Jess nodded, then looked at both men. "There are obstacles like this at boot camp, right?"

The two men nodded. "And tougher!" Bill smiled.

"Now go pick up your schoolwork," his father said.

He climbed on top of the ladder and worked his way across. The ladder gave and bounced slightly as he moved, but no more than any other ladder he'd ever climbed. As he looked down between the rungs, the same creek that he and Leslie had swung over dozens if not hundreds of times gave him a chilling feeling, particularly as he passed under the frayed remains of the rope and he remembered the iciness as he and Leslie jumped in to rescue the two Eighth Grade girls. It wasn't 'just like flying', but the thought of his falling in and drowning-- or worse, Leslie falling in and drowning-- quickly sobered him, and he accepted the change and the loss of that part of their adventures.

Reaching the top of the far bank, he stepped onto solid ground, grinned and gave his father and Mr. Burke a thumbs up. "Be right back!"

He went downstream along that bank, past the point where the fallen tree had stopped Janice and Carla and where he and Leslie had jumped in. He continued all the way around the bend in the creek to the wider part and the rock where he had left his backpack. After picking it up, he worked his way back to the Castle; the soil was still soft and moist, but not enough to soak his sneakers again. Climbing back up and inside, he swapped the clothing and toiletries in the backpack back with his schoolwork, then picked up Leslie's backpack. With one pack slung over each shoulder, he came back down the rungs onto the ground and headed back to the crossing point.

* * *

Jess still had both backpacks slung on his shoulders when he followed Bill into the gold room, where Leslie, Judy and PT were all sitting together.

"Oh, good, Jess," Judy smiled. "You're here." She turned to Bill, but her message was for both of them. "We just got an unusual phone call from a caseworker at the pediatric ward of the hospital. Janice Avery is asking to see both Leslie and Jess."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**AnnaSophia Robb has been photographed in a few public appearances, including with Josh Hutcherson, wearing the kind of sandals I described, and yes, I do think they're just as flashy and funky as the high-tops in Leslie's wardrobe.**

**I'm taking this opportunity to adjust something that I thought was a little off about the business of Leslie going to church with the Aarons family. The movie dialogue in the back of the pickup follows the book pretty closely. In the book, it was specified that it was Easter Sunday, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus. But May Belle talks about how scary the idea was of "nailing holes through your hands", which I think is more consistent with a discussion on Palm Sunday than on Easter (especially for a little primary schooler like May Belle). Also, I've only familiarized myself with _The Chronicles of Narnia_ fairly recently, but after seeing _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_, and recalling that Leslie actually loaned Jess her copies of the _Narnia_ collection in the book, what I have Jess asking Leslie is something I would've liked to ask her myself! **

**I also want to make it clear that I still have a lot of disdain if not outright contempt for a lot of fanfic writers who pad out their fanfics by simply regurgitating the dialogue in the original stories and trying to make it look like their own work, and have posted a few reviews expressing that. Lest I be branded a hypocrite, I hope that everyone notices that the dialogue in this chapter is not a regurgitation but a consciously done subtle variation on the original dialogue, based on the twists in the story and keeping the characters consistent.**

**Of course, in the movie, the tree that Jess turned into the bridge didn't fall over across the creek until sometime after (_shudders!_****) Leslie drowned, so here in this story, Jess, Leslie and Bill would have no idea that that was about to happen. So the prospect of building a bridge would be much more complex from their perspective, and would require at least a temporary bridge, and a ladder would make a good expedient.**

**As always, reviews and comments are invited and encouraged.**


	6. Chapter 6

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

* * *

Chapter 6

Judy quickly explained that-- as the Burkes' number was unlisted-- the caseworker had first called the Aarons home and spoken to Mary, who passed the caseworker's name and number on to Judy. After a quick phone call home to confirm to his mother that he was going, Jess crammed himself into the nearly nonexistent back seat of the Burkes' Mercedes, after which Judy got behind the wheel and Leslie got in the front passenger seat.

"I'm sure Janice means you no harm," Judy told both of them. "She can't, anyway, in a hospital!"

"I know, Mom!" Leslie replied. It's just... weird."

"Well, Ms. Smart, the caseworker, said that there were things she couldn't tell us because of confidentiality. She sounded like there was a lot more that Janice will have to tell you herself. And I don't want to venture any guesses as to what it might be." Judy smiled. "I'm sure that, at the least, she wants to thank you two."

"You obviously don't know Janice, Mrs. Burke!" Jess said with a slight but sarcastic laugh.

"No, I don't, Jess. But I can't think of any other reason she'd want to see you. And we don't know how much this whole incident may have affected her."

"I don't know about that," Leslie shot a glance over her shoulder toward Jess. "Do Giant Trolls change their spots any more than leopards do?"

Judy glanced over at both of them. "Well, look how much you two have changed just over the last two days! And you two didn't come as close to dying as those two girls did."

Leslie blinked. "How have we changed, Mom?"

"The way you're more open about your feelings for each other," Judy smiled. "You think Dad and I are blind? It's okay, Honey. We're happy for you."

"Thanks, Mom," Leslie smiled back.

* * *

After stopping at the Information desk in the main lobby and introducing themselves, the three of them were asked to wait a moment, after which the woman at the desk picked up her phone and made a call. Presently, an elevator door opened and among those who stepped out was a middle-aged black woman with glasses and shoulder-length hair, and wearing a hospital employee ID badge. With a glimmer of recognition, she smiled and approached them.

"Mrs. Burke? Hi, I'm Tracy Smart. Thank you for coming."

"Pleased to meet you, Ms. Smart," Judy shook her hand. "This is my daughter Leslie and her friend Jess."

"Thank you all for coming," Ms. Smart smiled. "So you're _the_ Judith Hancock-Burke! I recognize you from your pictures on your book covers. I'm a big fan of you and your husband. I was so excited when I learned you'd moved to our area, but I never expected to meet you at my work."

"I'll be sure and tell Bill," Judy smiled back. "He would've come along too, except that we have a small car and three people barely fit."

"The Pediatric Ward is upstairs on the third floor," Ms. Smart said as she led them back to the elevators just as an upward-bound one opened. After they entered and she saw that they were the only ones on board, she continued as the doors closed, "I'll take the kids in to see Janice. Mrs. Burke, you're welcome to wait in my office, and if Janice doesn't need me there, I hope you don't mind some conversation with a big fan."

"Of course not!" Judy laughed. "It'll be a pleasure. We wouldn't be where we are without our fans!"

Once the elevator opened at the third floor, Ms. Smart led them down the hall past the nurses' station to the patient rooms. The hallways were painted with bright colors in a cartoon-like landscape.

"I've never been here before," Leslie said to Jess. "Have you?"

"Only when May Belle and Joyce Ann were born," he nodded. "Never been in this part. The Maternity Ward's not as decorated." He chuckled at the decor. "Kinda reminds me of Teletubbyland!"

"Huh?" Leslie squinted. "No TV in my house, remember?"

"The Teletubbies. It's a PBS show for toddlers. Joyce Ann's favorite now, it was May Belle's when she was that age." He cast his head downward a second before admitting, "And I watched it when I was that age too!"

"Poor Janice and Carla!" Leslie chuckled.

"Yes," Ms. Smart tried vainly not to smile. "Unfortunately, in the medical profession, _anyone_ under eighteen is considered a pediatric case! Luckily, we don't decorate the rooms for any specific age group!"

They came to a stop by the open door to a patient room. Judy looked at Ms. Smart and said softly, "I'll just wait out here."

Leslie and Jess followed the caseworker into the room. The far bed by the window appeared unoccupied. Lying back on pillows on the near bed and staring up at the TV set was Janice Avery. Her right eye was blackened and that side of her forehead, where she'd had the bleeding abrasions, was bandaged. She was wearing a standard hospital gown. Upon hearing them enter, she turned to them and, with a thin smile, said raspily, "Hey, Jess. Hey, Leslie."

"She knows my real name!" Leslie said with a gasp, in her best imitation of Miss Edmunds when Jess first offered to carry her instruments from her car.

"I'm sorry!" Janice said as her eyes started to well up. "I'll never call you another mean nickname again, Leslie."

"Janice," Ms. Smart said gently, "do you need me here?"

"No, thanks, Ms. Smart," she sniffled. "I guess Carla wanted to know when Jess and Leslie got here, though."

"I'll tell her," Ms. Smart said. "Leslie, your mom will be in my office, which is around the corner from the nurses' station, when you two are ready to go home."

"Thank you, Ms. Smart."

As the caseworker stepped out quietly, Janice hit the switch to raise the head of her bed and sit up more. She remained misty-eyed as she looked at the young couple, unsure of what to say. Finally, she looked down at Leslie's still-sandaled feet and forced a smile. "Nice feet!"

Leslie let out a laugh. "Yeah, well, I'm kind of avoiding wearing closed shoes and walking around too much. I worked up a couple of painful blisters running home from the creek in wet sneakers."

Janice let out a sudden sob and placed her hands over her face. "Oh, Leslie! Jess! I'm so sorry!"

Leslie and Jess glanced uncertainly toward each other, and then they cautiously approached the bed. Almost as if trying to disarm a bomb, they each reached forward and tentatively touched Janice's back and shoulders with their fingertips before finally stroking them. "It's okay, Janice," Leslie whispered.

"Carla and I tried to cross the creek just to hurt you two..." Janice sobbed, "...and nobody would have blamed you if you'd just left us to die... But you didn't!"

"The thought of letting you die never crossed our minds," Leslie said gently.

"Not for a second," Jess added.

"I would've deserved it if you had."

"Now, don't talk like that," Leslie whispered. "That's not true."

"Yes it is!" Janice continued to sob. "I'm a bad person and God's punishing me! You should've let Him finish the job!"

Jess found himself fighting not to nod in agreement or smile.

"No, Janice," Leslie said. "If God had meant to punish you, He wouldn't have let us pull you out of the creek. Maybe He's giving you a second chance."

"A second chance at what?" Janice sniffled.

"Only you can answer that one," Leslie said softly.

"Yeah," Janice nodded. Leslie and Jess stopped stroking her back and shoulders as she turned toward them. "Anyway, I'm sorry for everything I ever did to you two. And thank you both for saving my life, especially since I didn't deserve it." She gave first Jess and then Leslie each a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then the young couple both felt her trembling as she put her arms around both of them and then started sobbing again, much more loudly.

"It's okay, Janice," Leslie said. "Apology and thanks accepted."

"We forgive you," Jess added. "Honest!"

"I'm a horrible person! God's punishing me!"

"How's He punishing you?" Leslie asked. "You're alive, and except for some scrapes and bruises you're in pretty good health, right?"

Janice squeezed them tighter and Leslie felt moisture seeping through the shoulder of her shirt, on which she realized that Janice was literally crying. "He's broken up my family!" Janice cried.

Leslie and Jess both pulled back and looked at her. "What?" Leslie asked.

"My dad was pissed at me when I woke up here yesterday. I could tell. He wanted to smack me around like he does at home sometimes... He was mad because it was my fault I got put in the hospital... and his insurance doesn't cover all of it."

"My dad gets mad at me sometimes too..." Jess started, then shut up, realizing that Janice had just admitted that her father smacked her around at home, something his own dad never did to him or any of his sisters.

"This morning, my mom and my sister came back here without my dad," Janice continued. "They told me that when they got home last night, he got drunk and started fighting with my mom, then he smacked them both around. The neighbors called the cops, and they arrested him. Then they called child protective services because my sister's still only sixteen... So for now, my dad's not allowed to see me or my mom or my sister. Even if they let him out of jail, he can't come home."

"Maybe that's a good thing," Leslie said. She looked at Janice's frown and added, "In the long run. Maybe your dad needs help and maybe he'll get it now."

"That's what Ms. Smart and the caseworker from child protective services told me," Janice said softly." "I don't know if I believe them."

"It's probably true," Leslie tried to reassure her. "I don't think they'd lie to you. If he's never been arrested before, the court usually gives probation and counseling."

"You think so? I don't want my dad to go to prison!'

"Maybe he won't. But either way, they can't let him keep hurting you and the rest of your family."

Janice clung more tightly to Leslie. "God! I feel so awful! And everyone's gonna know my dad was arrested. I don't know if I can face going back to school when I get out of here."

"I know what that's like," Leslie nodded to herself.

Janice pulled back and looked at her. "You? Your dad's rich and kinda famous. And he's probably never been in jail."

"Yeah," Leslie said. "But I know what it's like to have everyone think I'm weird. My whole class thinks I'm weird except for Jess. Right, Jess?"

"That's right," Jess nodded.

"Mrs. Myers gave us an assignment to watch a special on TV about Robert Ballard the undersea explorer. And when I told her we didn't have a TV, everyone laughed at me."

"So how did you deal with it?" Janice asked. "How should _I_ deal with it?"

"Just pretend you don't know what anyone's talking about."

"And that works for you?"

"Give it a couple of weeks," Leslie nodded, "and I'll bet everyone will forget about the whole thing."

"Did everyone forget about your not having a TV?" Janice asked.

"I guess," Leslie pursed her lips and shrugged. "Everyone still thinks I'm weird, but I've been living with that my whole life." She turned and smiled toward Jess, then clung to his arm with both of hers and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Except for one friend who doesn't think I'm weird. But he's all I really need."

"Well," Janice nodded and smiled, "now you've got _two_ friends."

"Three!" another voice called from the doorway behind Leslie and Jess. They all turned to find Carla smiling as she limped into the room. She was wearing a terrycloth bathrobe over a cotton nightshirt, her right foot in a bedroom slipper and her left in a hard plastic orthopedic boot.

"Hey, Carla!" Jess smiled.

"How're you feeling?" Leslie asked.

"A lot better than I was the last time you saw me," Carla nodded. She reached out and gave the two of them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "I said I was sorry for what we were trying to do to you to when we fell in the creek, but I never thanked you two for saving our lives."

"You're welcome," Jess and Leslie said together.

"Hey, Jan!" Carla smiled, "Ms. Smart says that now that the girl that was in here with you was discharged, Dr. Molano gave his okay for me to move here. They're doing the paperwork now."

"Great!" Janice's face brightened.

"They figure it'll help us both recover quicker being together."

"So how much longer are you in here for?" Leslie asked.

"Tuesday morning at the earliest," Janice said. "They have to keep us under observation for three days, to make sure there's no water left in our lungs that can come free and drown us."

"Yeah," Leslie nodded. "That's what my dad figured."

"Your dad knows a lot, doesn't he?" Carla smiled.

"He and my mom have to. That's how they make their living," Leslie shrugged.

"Well, once we get out of here and back to school," Janice turned to Leslie and Jess, "you guys can sit in the back row on the bus with us!"

"Really?" Jess raised his eyebrows.

"Of course!" Carla said. "We mean it. We owe both of you our lives. You're our friends now."

"In fact," Janice said, "since we're gonna be out until Wednesday at the earliest, you can sit in our seats starting tomorrow. Get me a piece of paper and a pen. I'll write a note for you guys in case Billy Morris or any of the others in our class give you a hard time."

"Thanks, but don't bother!" Jess smiled wryly. "At this point, nobody in the entire school is going to believe that Leslie and I didn't forge it!"

There was a second of silence, and then they all burst out laughing.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

**People who read my other fanfics (including my roleplay as Bill Burke in _The Kingdom of Terabithia_ website) will notice my repeated references to the "cramped" and "nearly nonexistent" back seat of the Burkes' Mercedes. I have a relative who owned a Mercedes SL, and that's what I remember the most about it!**

**My lady friend and I are both over 50 and retired, but we love the Teletubbies too! Since the movie came out in 2007 and Jess's birthday cake had 11 candles, the show was already out when he reached the age for the target audience!**

**In the movie, it's implied that Carla and Janice are no longer friends after word gets out about Janice's father being arrested, and I personally infer that she had a part in spreading the word, and reflect that in my Royal Court of Terabithia. That doesn't happen in this alternate timeline, since Janice and Carla share a brush with death and are in the hospital together when Janice's father is arrested.**

**As always, reviews and comments are invited and encouraged.**


	7. Chapter 7

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

* * *

Chapter 7

The next morning-- Monday-- Jess finished his morning chores early enough to be on the driveway with May Belle when Leslie stepped out her own front door. She was back to wearing high-tops and her hobbling was so slight that he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't already been aware of her blisters. "Hey!" he smiled at her.

"Hey, Jess!" she grinned as she joined them. She gave him a quick kiss and held his hand as the three of them continued on to the main road. "Good morning, May Belle."

"Hi, Leslie," May Belle replied. She grinned in self-satisfaction at the couple's handholding.

"You seem to be walking a lot more comfortably," Jess nodded to Leslie.

"Yeah, I'm doing pretty good. Thanks." She looked at him. "Did your folks tell you? My parents called the school first thing this morning and made an appointment to see Mr. Turner this afternoon with your mom."

"Yeah. My dad's gonna try to get out of work early and make it too."

They crossed the main road to wait for the bus. When it came into view from around the bend, Jess and Leslie let go of each other's hands but continued to smile at each other. As the bus pulled up and Mr. Kenny opened the door, they let May Belle step up ahead of them.

There was an unusual, odd silence throughout the bus as Jess and Leslie went up the steps. Alexandra was sitting in a seat by herself in the middle, staring silently out the window.

"Hey, Alexandra!" May Belle said cheerfully as she sat next to her. Alexandra turned and smiled briefly, but when Leslie and Jess took the empty seat immediately behind them, the freckled redhead suddenly pushed past May Belle and dashed for an empty seat several rows toward the front of the bus. May Belle got up and joined her.

"Weird!" Jess whispered to Leslie as they squinted at his sister and her friend. The odd silence continued as Mr. Kenny closed the doors and drove on. They looked around and noticed the back row center seats normally taken by Janice and Carla were taken up by two other Eighth Grade girls, with Billy Morris, the tall, swarthy, long-haired Eighth Grader who was the informal "Alpha Male" of the clique, in the corner seat. None of them were speaking, and they all averted eye contact with Jess and Leslie as the two of them looked backward. As the engine revved up and the bus accelerated, conversation among the others slowly picked up in inaudible whispers.

"Why do you think they're all so quiet around us?" Leslie whispered.

"I'm not sure... It's like they know something's going to happen. To us!"

They sat silently for the remainder of the drive, self-conscious of the strange glances from most of the other kids. When the bus pulled up to the school, Alexandra was the first one off the bus with May Belle following closely.

Although the level of noise in the hallways was normal for a Monday morning before the start of class, the two of them continued to get several of the same kind of awkward glances they'd gotten on the bus, including from kids they only knew from seeing around and not by name. "This is not good!" Leslie murmured.

The noise level was likewise normal in Mrs. Myers' classroom, at least at first. When the two of them walked in, it dropped considerably in a quick ripple effect ahead of them as they stepped through the door and went to their seats. Almost immediately, the two of them realized that the other kids were actually moving out of their way in addition to falling silent. Even Scott Hoager and Gary Fulcher gave Jess a wide berth and remained totally silent as he settled in at his desk. He looked over to Leslie, who returned his raised-eyebrow look and shrugged.

"Jesse, Leslie," Mrs. Myers called as she stepped into the room. "A word with both of you out in the hallway, please."

They both stepped forward and out the door after her.

"You two are not to get on the bus after the dismissal bell," she told them in a soft, matter-of-fact tone. "You're both to go straight to the Main Office."

"For detention?" Leslie asked anxiously.

"I'm not sure. That'll be up to Mr. Turner. I understand all four of your parents are coming in for a conference with him at three o'clock this afternoon. I may be asked to sit in, both of you may be called in. Normally the two of you would each get a day's detention for each class you cut on Friday, but Mr. Turner won't make that determination until after the meeting."

"Yes, Ma'am," Leslie nodded. Jess said nothing but nodded in concurrence. Mrs. Myers returned the nod, and they all returned inside. The entire class was unusually silent as everyone took their seats.

Jess couldn't stand it. He turned to Fulcher. "What?" he mumbled sarcastically. "No 'dead meat' comments this morning?"

Fulcher held up his hands. "Whoa, dude! I didn't say anything, did I?"

Jess squinted his eyes at him just as the bell rang.

* * *

Classes went on as usual, but Jess and Leslie didn't get a chance to talk to each other alone for the first two periods. When Mrs. Myers allowed a lavatory break between second and third periods, several other class members went along with Jess and Leslie, including Hoager, Fulcher and Madison Moore. While they were not alone on the walk down the hall, the level of conversation was loud enough for the two of them to whisper to each other without being overheard.

"Do you have any more of a clue as to what's going on?" Leslie asked.

"No," Jess shrugged. "I've been sitting two rows over from you as usual all morning. I haven't heard anything you haven't."

"I know. Maybe we'll overhear something in the lav."

"I'll wait for you out here if I'm done first," Jess said.

"Me too."

They split up and went to their respective lavatories. As Leslie went into a stall to relieve herself, she noticed that the conversation among the other girls who had accompanied her dropped off to only a few very soft, inaudible whispers as soon as they entered. After she was finished and went to wash her hands, the other girls continued to avoid eye contact as they filtered out of the Girls Room and back into the hallway. Leslie couldn't decide if this was better or worse than the malicious giggling they exhibited last Friday when they revealed to her that the word was out about the phony Willard Hughes love note.

She stepped back out in the hall. Jess was nowhere to be seen as the other Fifth Graders had started making their way back to the classroom, and she got out just in time to see three older boys enter the Boys Room. She gasped.

While relieving himself, Jess was very aware of the palpable silence among his classmates, and became even more conscious that they seemed to be rushing themselves to finish up and leave the lavatory. He was washing up as the last of his classmates stepped out and left him alone in the room, and before the door swung shut, a hand inserted itself and three larger Eighth Grade boys stepped in. Jess felt the blood draining from his face as he saw that the boy at the front was a slender, good looking youngster in a warmup suit, with blue eyes and blonde hair: Willard Hughes.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

**This is an unusually short chapter, I know, but I had to place a chapter break right here. I had considered just making it a part of the previous chapter, but I also needed a break where I placed it at the end of that chapter as well.**

**The "tall, swarthy long haired" boy is merely identified as "Eighth Grade Boy" in the credits, but he is essentially the same character as Billy Morris in the book.**

**Madison doesn't have a last name in the movie. In the book, the character's name was Wanda Kay Moore.**


	8. Chapter 8

IN CASE OF SIEGE

A _Bridge to Terabithia_ Fanfiction

by

Mad Tom

* * *

Chapter 8

The other two Eighth Graders hung back by the door as Willard stepped forward. Jess swallowed hard. "Willard!" he breathed. "Listen!... I-I'm sorry i-i-if I embarrassed you with th-that note."

Willard stopped and held up his hands. "It's okay, Aarons!... It's cool! In fact, I... I'm really flattered that you and Leslie Burke think I'm the guy that the girls all swoon over!"

Jess raised his eyebrows. His body remained taut and he continued to breathe rapidly through his mouth at the possibility of physical threat, but the three other boys remained in place.

"Listen," Willard continued. "I don't know who started this rumor, but we're _not_ after you! Like I just said, I think it's flattering that you two think the girls go all gushy over me. And if Janice Avery was conceited and gullible enough to believe I had the hots for her," he jerked his raised palms back and forth for emphasis, "that's _her_ problem, not mine!"

Jess remained frozen and open-mouthed.

"So we're cool, Jess?" Willard asked.

"Yeah," he nodded stiffly. "We're cool."

Willard turned and nodded to his two companions, and the three of them left quickly. Jess leaned heavily on the sink counter and heaved a loud sigh, just as a series of rapid knocks came on the door.

"Jess!" he heard Leslie's frantic voice from the other side. "Are you still in there?"

"Yeah!" he called back as he stepped back to the door. He stepped back out to find Leslie waiting with a fear in her eyes that he'd never seen before.

"Jess!" she gasped, gripping him tightly by both shoulders. "Did those guys hurt you?"

"No," he shook his head, a little dazed with disbelief. "None of them laid a finger on me!"

"But Willard threatened to squish you like a tomato?"

"Not even that! I started to apologize about the note, but he said he thought it was cool that you and I thought all the girls swooned over him. Then he said he didn't know who started the rumor that he and his friends were after me!"

Leslie let out a loud sigh and released her grip. "You're kidding!"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Jess blinked and thought for a second. "Maybe I was imagining things, but I thought he looked like he was as scared as I was!"

She raised her eyebrows. "Scared of you?"

"I doubt it. Scared of _something_. I have no idea what."

Leslie nodded toward their classroom. "We should head back to class. But if there's something going on that makes even Willard Hughes nervous to be around us, this can't be good."

They headed back and returned to their classroom, being the last to do among those who had taken the lavatory break. Again, a ripple of silence from their classmates preceded them to their desks.

* * *

As lunchtime came, Jess and Leslie still had learned nothing new. As they took their bag lunches to their favorite spot on one of the benches that encircled the large tree where the courtyard opened up to the playing fields, the kids who sat on the adjacent benches conspicuously slid away from them. As the couple started to eat, most of the other kids walking past seemed to glance at them through narrowed eyes and to give them a wide berth.

"This is driving me nuts!" Jess said finally, putting his sandwich down in his lap and throwing up his hands.

"Yeah, me too!" Leslie nodded. "Waiting for the other shoe to drop and having no idea what it is!"

"Can you think of _anybody_ who'd know whom we could ask? Someone we can trust?"

Leslie silently bit her lip for a second. "It's a long shot, kind of a leap of faith, but..."

"Who?" Jess asked anxiously.

"Well, who got us into this mess in the first place with their big mouths?"

"May Belle and Alexandra!" he laughed lightly.

"If you can't trust your own little sister..." she grinned.

"Yeah, but just because they go shooting their mouths off about everything they hear, doesn't mean they'd actually know anything."

"Alexandra's gotta know _something_, the way she acted on the bus when we sat behind her."

"It's worth a shot," Jess shrugged.

They finished eating quickly as they scanned the playground. His sister and her redheaded best friend weren't hard to find or far away, playing hopscotch on one of the painted courts in the paved area. Jess nudged Leslie and pointed them out, and they headed that way. The two younger girls were so absorbed in their game that they were unaware of the couple until they were almost on top of them and Leslie called out: "Alexandra!"

Alexandra then turned to see who was calling her and then stiffened and turned white.

Leslie took a step toward her and May Belle. "Listen, I want to ask..."

The redheaded girl turned bug-eyed and made a dash for the open field, forcing the other kids in her path to jump and dodge out of the way. Leslie and Jess sighed to each other and rolled their eyes before taking off after her with May Belle trailing after them. Alexandra made it to the field but didn't get far across before the two fastest kids in Fifth Grade caught up to her. As soon as Leslie laid a hand on her shoulder, she dropped onto the grass and curled up into a defensive ball, crying hysterically.

"_Please don't hurt me!_" she shrieked. "_I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me, Leslie! May Belle, please tell your brother and Leslie not to hurt me! Please! Please! Please! I'm sorry!_"

"Alexandra!" Leslie sighed heavily as she and Jess knelt next to her. "Calm down! We're not going to hurt you."

Alexandra looked up at them, gasping nervously. "You're not?"

"No!" Leslie shook her head.

"See!" May Belle said to Alexandra. "I tried to tell you!"

"Why would we want to hurt you?" Leslie asked.

"I told everybody your secret about the fake Willard Hughes letter," Alexandra continued to cry. "You're gonna beat me into a million pieces like you did to Janice and Carla! I'm sorry!"

Both Leslie's and Jess's jaws dropped and they both sat there, stunned and speechless.

"Is _that_ what you think happened?" Jess asked finally, his voice squealing.

"That's what _everyone_ thinks happened," May Belle said. "They think that when Janice and Carla went after you guys, you booby-trapped the woods, then beat 'em up and put 'em in the hospital. Then somehow you got Janice's dad put in jail."

There was a few more seconds' worth of open-mouthed silence from Jess and Leslie, and then they both snickered and then burst into hysterical laughter, Jess falling with his back on the grass and then Leslie falling over across his chest.

"You're not going to beat me up?" Alexandra looked like she had literally received a commutation on a death sentence as May Belle helped her to sit up.

"No!" Leslie wheezed. "We didn't hurt Janice and Carla. In fact, we saved their lives."

"That's what I told her!" May Belle emphasized. "She won't believe me!"

"Everything all right here?" a familiar female voice, adult but youthful, called out above them. Jess and Leslie turned to see a familiar pair of pink Crocs on the grass near his head, and then followed them up the slender ankles and legs, Capri pants and floral blouse to the delicate blue-eyed face and dark hair.

"Everything's fine, Miss Edmunds," Leslie grinned as she sat up and then helped Jess do so. "We're just trying to reassure Alexandra that we're not out to beat her into a pulp."

"We just found out there's this rumor going around..." Jess added, still laughing.

"Yes, I know!" Miss Edmunds furrowed her brows at them, then smiled. "I didn't think it was true. As bad and as mean as some of the kids can get around here, you two are just not the type who would assassinate Jesse James!"

* * *

Their classmates' behavior remained the same after lunch, but seeing it in a new light brought subtle smirks to their lips as they returned to their seats. They continued to exchange those smirks as Jess occasionally glanced behind and one row past Gary Fulcher toward Leslie. In between 7th and 8th Period, while the class shifted subjects, Leslie got out of her seat and leaned over Fulcher's desk, which caused him to lean back nervously out of the way as she tossed a folded sheet of paper across to Jess.

He unfolded it and read: _Seven whole periods so far without a nasty comment from Squoger, Vulture, Madison or anyone else! I could get used to this! Love, Leslie_, followed by a smiley face.

Jess grinned back at her as she settled back at her desk. Not only did she sign it "Love, Leslie" which, if seen by anyone else prior to today, would have triggered an irreparable round of teasing, but she passed it to him literally under Fulcher's nose. Whatever punishment Mr. Turner was going to dish out after his meeting with their parents, it was going to be worth it.

When the dismissal bell rang at 3:10, Mrs. Myers stood by her desk as the kids flowed out the door. "Jesse, Leslie," she said softly as they went past, "just a reminder..."

"No, ma'am," Leslie replied, "we didn't forget."

The two of them made their way, carrying their backpacks, down the halls toward the Main office."

"Have you ever had to serve detention?" Leslie asked.

"No," Jess replied. "I don't suppose _you_ have either." He smiled at her. "You're Little Miss Perfect Teacher's Pet."

She punched him in the arm with a grin. "I don't _try_ to be Teacher's Pet! You know me better than that, Jesse Aarons! Mrs. Myers just likes me because I _don't_ try to suck up to her like Madison and the others." She sighed. "And those days are over. You saw the look on Mrs. Myers' face when she called us out into the hallway this morning."

"So you're no longer Old Monster Mouth's fair haired girl. I guess it's a bigger deal for you. I didn't have as far to fall. I've been on her crap list since before I met her, just 'cause I'm Ellie and Brenda's brother. She probably hates me even more now for corrupting you!"

"No big deal, Jess," she smiled reassuringly. "Madison Moore is welcome to the Teacher's Pet job if she wants it. She's already got Class Suck-Up all sewn up!" She stroked his hand briefly. "I'll take being Queen of Terabithia with you as my King over being Mrs. Myers' Pet any day."

"Even if it means a week's worth of detention?"

"Even if it means a week's worth of detention!"

"Thanks, Leslie!"

The turned the corner into the Office wing and found May Belle a few steps ahead of them. They caught up to her just before reaching the door to the Main Office.

"May Belle!" Jess said. "You're not in trouble too, are you?"

"No. Miss Pratt told me to come down here. Since Momma's here, we're all supposed to ride home with her."

The three of them entered the outer Main Office and sat in the row of seats against the wall. The two clerks behind the counter saw their entrance, and one of them stood, knocked on the door to Mr. Turner's inner office and stuck her head inside. A second later, Mary Aarons came out carrying Joyce ann and holding a diaper bag.

"Hi," she smiled at her other two children and Leslie. "Dad and I and Leslie's folks may be in with Mr. Turner for a while. Could you two watch Joycie for me?"

'Okay, Mom," Jess nodded. Mary seated the blonde toddler in his lap, deposited the diaper bag at his feet and returned to Mr. Turner's office.

Leslie watched Jess halfheartedly hold Joyce Ann and jiggle his legs under her, while May Belle crossed her arms and stared off, trying her best to ignore her baby sister's presence. Leslie leaned over and tickled Joyce Ann's chin. "Hi there, Joycie!"

Joyce Ann giggled and laughed, smiling brightly at her.

"Can I take her?" Leslie asked Jess.

"Knock yourself out!" Jess grinned, moving Joyce Ann onto Leslie's lap. Leslie took her by the armpits and rubbed noses with her, then swung her up and down, cooing to her as Joyce Ann giggled with delight. Jess smiled as he looked at his girlfriend in this new light, watching her bond with his baby sister.

"Don't worry, Jess," Leslie smiled at him. "I'm not gonna trade PT for her!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" May Belle squinted at them.

"You don't want to know!" Jess chuckled.

They sat there, quiet except for Leslie's cooing and Joyce Ann's giggling and babbling. The two clerks were engaged in light conversation in between answering phone calls. The three kids couldn't hear anything intelligible from the very muffled conversation that filtered through from Mr. Turner's office, although occasionally the distinct, raspy voice of Jack Aarons could be heard rising almost to the level of shouting. Jess felt mixed emotions; although his father had said he was coming to this meeting to "ask Mr. Turner what the hell kind of zoo he's running", it still unsettled Jess that nearly all the times he'd heard his father raise his voice like that, it was directed at him; plus, there was no guarantee that the wrong words from Mrs. Myers or one of the other staff or from Mr. Turner himself might turn the situation back against him.

The minutes passed. At 3:30, the teachers and other staff began filtering through the outer office, checking the mail in their mailboxes on the wall and signing out of the building, with no sign of an end coming to the meeting. Mrs. Myers and Miss Edmunds walked in together, conversing lightheartedly, then both stopped and smiled when they saw Joyce Ann sitting in Leslie's lap.

"Awww!" Miss Edmunds said as she leaned over to get closer. "Your baby sister, Leslie?"

"No, ma'am. Jess and May Belle's. I'm an only child."

"Aw, she's a cutie!" Miss Edmunds said to Jess and May Belle. She turned to Mrs. Myers. "Looks like we're not done with _this_ batch for a few more years!"

Mrs. Myers cracked a very thin smile. "Are your parents still in with Mr. Turner?"

"Yes, ma'am," Leslie nodded.

"I wouldn't worry too much," Mrs. Myers said. "Mr. Turner spoke to us earlier today, and both of us recommended leniency for both of you after we learned the details."

"Thanks," Leslie and Jess said together.

Leslie waited until the two teachers said goodbye and left. "So maybe you're _not_ on her crap list anymore!" she said softly.

"I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen!" Jess smiled. "But it looks like you're still in the running for Teacher's Pet!"

At around 3:40, Mr. Turner opened his office door and looked at them. "You kids can come in now. You too, May Belle."

They came around the counter and the clerks' desks into Mr. Turner's office. Both sets of parents were seated in armchairs in front of the desk, and Leslie handed Joyce Ann back to Mary. The three kids remained standing.

"Leslie, Jess," Mr. Turner began, "you both know that we don't take cutting class and leaving the school grounds lightly."

"Yes, sir," they both replied.

"However," he continued, "your parents and Mrs. Myers and some of the other teachers have filled me in on the whole story. I had a talk with Mr. Kenny and reminded him that what he did was not proper procedure. Any allegations of horseplay or other safety infraction on a bus are to be reported to an administrator _after_ the bus run. He does not have the authority to deny transportation to a student on his own, so what he did to you, Jess, won't happen again. May Belle, what Janice Avery did with your lunch shouldn't have happened, as well as this racket of her and Carla Dean at the playground lavatories. But as I explained to your parents, the staff can't be everywhere."

He glanced downward momentarily, clearing his throat before continuing, addressing all three kids. "At any rate, I agree with your parents that what Jess and Leslie did about Janice was a lot more nonviolent and creative than what would usually happen in a situation like that. And it's my understanding that you've resolved your conflicts with Janice and Carla in a most dramatic fashion."

Jess and Leslie nodded.

"Jess, Leslie, I can't ignore the fact that you two did cut several periods and left the building on Friday. But considering the extenuating circumstances, I'm going to count this meeting as your detention for this offense, and consider this whole matter closed."

* * *

"I told you," Jack Aarons smiled to his only son. "I never promised you anything, but we had a few questions we wanted to ask Mr. Turner."

The two families stepped out into the now nearly empty parking lot where both of the Aarons family's vehicles-- Jack's pickup and Mary's station wagon-- were several spaces apart. "Where's our car?" Leslie asked her parents.

"We rode over with Mrs. Aarons and Joyce Ann," Judy answered.

"I'm going back to work," Jack announced. He kissed his wife and daughters, stroked Jess and Leslie on their shoulders and shook hands with Bill and Judy before stepping off to his pickup.

Mary strapped Joyce Ann into the child seat in the back seat of her old station wagon as everyone else piled in, Jess, Leslie and May Belle in the rear compartment, Judy in the front passenger seat and Bill in the back seat next to Joyce Ann.

"You know, May Belle," Jess said as his mother drove them homeward, "you and Alexandra need to start spreading the word about what really happened. Especially since it was you two who got me and Leslie into this situation in the first place."

"We already did, Jess!" May Belle with what bordered on a whine. "Right after you guys talked to Alexandra after lunch. But nobody wants to believe us!"

Bill laughed and turned in his seat to look back at them. "I'm afraid May Belle just hit the nail on the head about what your problem is. Everyone thinks you two just shot Liberty Valance!"

Leslie squinted at her father. "Who's Liberty Valance?"

"The bad guy in an old cowboy movie," Jess interjected. "_The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_. Right, Mr. Burke?"

"Right," Bill nodded. "An old John Ford classic from 1962."

"It was on one of the classic movie channels a few months ago," Jess explained to Leslie.

"Lee Marvin played Liberty Valance, but Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne were the stars of the movie," Bill continued. "Liberty Valance is this hired gun for this cattle baron who's trying to put all the other ranchers out of business. Jimmy Stewart is a lawyer with no gunfighting experience who comes to town trying to help establish law and order. John Wayne is another cattle rancher who's the only guy that Liberty Valance and the cattle baron don't mess with. John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart get into a love triangle with Vera Miles who was John Wayne's girlfriend to begin with. In the meantime, Liberty Valance keeps killing or beating and terrorizing the other ranchers and settlers, helping his boss keep a stranglehold on the town. Eventually, he goes after Jimmy Stewart, who's scared to death but decides to get a gun and face him down. They shoot it out and Jimmy Stewart comes out hurt but alive, and by some miracle, Liberty Valance is dead. Vera Miles decides to marry Jimmy Stewart instead of John Wayne, and John Wayne becomes a recluse."

"Instead of John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart shoots the bad guy _and_ gets the girl?" Leslie squinted. "That doesn't sound right! Are you sure you're remembering it right, Dad?"

Bill laughed and looked into his daughter's eyes, holding up one hand momentarily. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Honey. In the first place, one of the ironies about John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart: in real life during World War II, John Wayne failed his military physical because of an old college football injury, while Jimmy Stewart became a real war hero. He commanded a bomber squadron and led missions deep into Nazi Germany. By the time they made this movie, he was a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve."

Jess and Leslie raised their eyebrows.

"Anyway," her father continued, "Jimmy Stewart's character becomes so popular for standing up and shooting Liberty Valance, and for establishing law and order, that he eventually gets himself elected to Congress. So years and years later, Jimmy Stewart's a senator, and John Wayne's character dies. So Jimmy and Vera Miles travel all the way home from Washington for his funeral, and a reporter asks why such a big, important senator traveled all that way just for the funeral of some obscure rancher. And Jimmy Stewart explains that during the political convention that nominated him, he was about to turn it down because he didn't want to advance himself on the reputation for killing someone. But then, John Wayne pulls him aside and tells him that he'd been hiding in an alley and was the one who _really_ shot Liberty Valance. And that Jimmy Stewart needed to accept the nomination and use his reputation for the sake of Vera Miles and the greater good of everybody."

"So how do _we_ turn this into something for the greater good, Dad?" Leslie asked.

"Mr. Turner had an idea," Bill smiled. "Mom tells me Janice and Carla promise never to extort money again, but Mr. Turner says the reason he couldn't stop them to begin with was because the teachers don't have the time to keep a continuous eye on the lav. So maybe the two of you can keep an eye on the lav and make sure nobody else does what Janice and Carla did. With your reputation, Mr. Turner figures nobody's gonna mess with you."

"But in _our_ story, Liberty Valance didn't die," Jess said. "Janice and Carla will be back later this week, and even though they won't extort again, they'll tell everyone what really happened. I wouldn't expect them to lie for us."

"Well, then your _original_ problem is solved," Bill smiled. "And people will probably be more impressed that you saved their lives than that you put them in the hospital. But as May Belle just said, nobody's listening to her and Alexandra. This story may take on a life of its own because everyone _wants_ it to be true. The way the movie ends, after Jimmy Stewart finishes telling the truth to the reporter, the reporter rips up his notebook and says, 'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!'"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**We're not quite done yet. There will be an epilogue.**

**If the phrase "beat into a million pieces" sounds familiar, that's what May Belle tells Jess to do in the book instead of just "You're supposed to beat her up!" Just thought I'd work it into this story.**

**They're out of frame in the movie, but there are a couple of publicity stills out there that show Miss Edmunds wearing pink Crocs in her Music class.**

**In every school district I've ever worked, a bus driver cannot deny transportation to a student and make him/her walk based only on another student's accusation. If the student presents a safety risk, the driver needs to report it to the school and an administrator makes the final determination as to whether the student is suspended from the bus. I've seen bus drivers get in deeper do-do for less than what Kenny did. (Katherine Paterson should have known that!)**


End file.
